Netanyahu says he’s ready to ‘go a long, long way to free the hostages — while maintaining Israel’s security’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that he is “ready to go a long, long way to release all of our hostages, while maintaining Israel’s security.”

He denies recent reports that he has added demands to the current hostage-ceasefire deal offer on the table, intending to stymie the negotiations.

“We did not add a single demand to the outline. Hamas is the one that demanded the introduction of dozens of changes,” Netanyahu says at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting.

Efforts to secure a deal with Hamas to release the remaining 111 hostages kidnapped on October 7 have been unsuccessful since a weeklong truce in November that saw the release of 105 civilians.

A high-level Israeli delegation reportedly visited Cairo yesterday for indirect talks on the proposal with American and Egyptian negotiators but returned the same day. Several reports indicated that the meeting had not borne progress.

Netanyahu also warns “Iran’s axis of evil” against attacking Israel, vowing, “We will respond and exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us, from any front.”

His comments come as Israel braces for potential attacks by Iran and Hezbollah in the coming days, amid assessments that assaults could come from several fronts.