In recording, Netanyahu pessimistic on hostage deal, Israel looking for partial agreement

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells members of his Likud party that he is pessimistic about reaching a hostage release and ceasefire deal with Hamas, saying that the successors to slain terror group leader Yahya Sinwar will want to show that they are even more hardline than he was.

A recording of Netanyahu’s comments to a closed-door meeting of the Likud faction at the Knesset are broadcast by Channel 12.

“We are ‘working all the time to bring [the hostages] back, we are trying at the moment to find partial solutions, but it’s not clear if there will be any new opportunities due to the killing of Sinwar. At the moment, all those who want to succeed Sinwar will be more Sinwar than Sinwar,” Netanyahu says.

“We will return those we can, when we can,” he says.

“Hamas is making demands that we can’t agree to, ending the war. Maybe those conditions will be removed, if they remove them, it won’t be because they want to, but because they need a pause, they need breathing space,” he says.

“You ask, what do you give them if you don’t give them the end of the war, the answer is we could give them days of relief…. You give them the simple option of coming out of the tunnels. That’s one of the possibilities we are talking about and maybe we will be able to bring people back,” he says.

Netanyahu downplays a report of an Egyptian offer for a small deal to restore trust on both sides.

“There was an offer that was published by the media that Egypt offered two days of ceasefire in exchange for four hostages, I would take that immediately. It doesn’t exist,” he says.

“We are definitely looking here for partial deals. As long as they are in accord with our national interest, we want to push forward on them as soon as possible,” Netanyahu says.