Meeting hardline hostage relatives, Netanyahu says ‘not sure there will be a deal’
Relatives say PM told them Israel will not give up on strategic assets it has claimed in Gaza, such as Philadelphi Corridor, for a deal with Hamas
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Tuesday meeting that he’s “not sure there will be a deal,” according to hostage families representing groups demanding that their loved ones be freed by military pressure rather than via a deal with Hamas.
The Gvura Forum, which held the meeting along with the Tikva Forum, said in a statement that Netanyahu reiterated during the meeting that should a deal end up being sealed, it would “safeguard Israel’s interests.” The forums represent families of some slain soldiers and some hostages respectively.
They quoted the premier as saying that he had told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in their meeting Monday that “Israel won’t leave the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor under any circumstances.”
The Philadelphi Corridor runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, while the Netzarim Corridor bisects Gaza’s north and south.
One of the major gaps in negotiations that the US, Egypt, and Qatari mediators are trying to address concerns the deployment of IDF troops along the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border. Netanyahu has insisted on maintaining an IDF presence there to prevent the smuggling of weapons — a demand Hamas rejects.
“The military pressure will continue with full force. This is the one thing that causes Hamas to come down from its unreasonable demands,” Netanyahu said, according to the Gvura statement.
According to quotes released by his office, Netanyahu told the families that Israel was getting close to eliminating Hamas and hailed the achievements of the ongoing operation in Rafah and the elimination of top commanders in the terror group.
“Secondly — at the same time, we are making an effort to return the hostages, under conditions that will allow the maximum number of captives to be released in the first stage of a deal. I say this clearly — this is a goal I set,” he said, adding Israel would hold onto assets it has claimed, despite pressure to give them up in a deal.
“The relatives made clear to the prime minister that only victory against Hamas will return the hostages, and it is forbidden for Israel to give up on its strategic assets for a partial deal that will abandon most of the hostages in Gaza,” the Tikva Forum wrote in a post on X.
One of the relatives who participated in the meeting, Zvika Mor, whose son Eitan Mor is captive in Gaza, also told Hebrew media afterward that his impression was that Netanyahu “doesn’t believe there will be a deal.”
Mor said he and colleagues from the Gvura and Tikva forums voiced concerns about the potential deal currently being negotiated.
The broader Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which advocates for an immediate deal to bring the captives home, blasted Netanyahu for the comments, accusing him of permanently abandoning the hostages to their fates in Gaza
“The prime minister’s remarks are effectively torpedoing the hostage deal,” the forum said. “Netanyahu won’t face that abandoning the hostages leads to their being murdered in captivity.
“They’re not suffering, they’re also dying,” the statement continued, referring to comments allegedly made by the premier during a cabinet meeting last month, when he said that the hostages “are suffering but they are not dying.”
“There is no hope and no heroism in a ‘firm’ stance that will result in the continued death of all the hostages,” the forum continued, alluding to the Tikva and Gvura forums, whose names mean “hope” and “heroism,” respectively. “The Israeli government abandoned the hostages on October 7 and is now abandoning them for good.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also slammed Netanyahu calling for an immediate deal before the hostages “all die.”
“Enough with the briefings, enough with the tweets,” Lapid urged. “All of Netanyahu’s attempts to sabotage the negotiations should stop. A deal now, before they all die.”
Pressure to secure a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and a release of hostages held by the terror group since October 7 has peaked in recent weeks after both Iran and Hezbollah threatened major retaliatory attacks on Israel for the killings of high-level terror chiefs last month. Both are understood to be holding off pending the results of the negotiations.
After the IDF recovered the bodies of six dead hostages on Tuesday, the Hostages Families and Missing Forum urged the government to “do everything in its power” to finalize the long-delayed agreement.
Netanyahu has been demanding that any hostage-truce deal provide for an ongoing IDF presence along the Egypt-Gaza border and include a mechanism to prevent a return of armed Hamas gunmen to northern Gaza. He has also insisted that Israel retain the right to resume the battle against Hamas in order to achieve all the war’s declared aims — the release of all hostages, the destruction of Hamas, and the prevention of Gaza posing a future terrorist threat to Israel.
It is believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 now remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 30 hostages have now been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
