Negotiators said to believe chance of hostage deal ‘close to zero’; US also pessimistic
Families reportedly told deal unlikely to happen as Netanyahu, Sinwar both hardened stances; US to delay presenting new proposal, does not want to reward Hamas after executions
The chances of a phased hostage-ceasefire agreement being achieved on the basis of Israel’s May proposal are “close to zero” and there is “very broad pessimism” among the Israeli negotiators, Channel 12 reported Sunday, citing unnamed sources in the Israeli security establishment.
The US, which had indicated it was planning to present a new bridging proposal in the next two or three days, is now regarded as unlikely to do so, it added.
The report cited immense frustration among Israel’s negotiators who, it said, had believed until recently it was possible to at least reach an agreement between Israel and the mediators that would then be conveyed to Hamas.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Hebrew press conference last Monday, at which he repeatedly insisted on maintaining IDF control of the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border — a stance that was not specified in the Netanyahu-approved May proposal — “buried” the chances of such an agreement. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar then hardened his positions, the report said.
The prospects of progress were further dented when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in an interview on Saturday night that Philadelphi was not his only “red line,” and that he also opposed an IDF withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor and the release of Palestinian security prisoners serving terms for murder. Essentially, said the report, the position set out by Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party that is a crucial element in Netanyahu’s coalition, “wiped out” Israel’s May proposal.
Channel 12 quoted a source familiar with the negotiations saying: “It appears that the current proposal will not come to fruition at this time. There is no prospect of a phased deal.”
The network said a senior Israeli negotiator had told hostage families that “not even the first phase” of the deal — a six-week ceasefire in which some 30 living women, children, elderly and ailing hostages would be released — was likely to happen at the moment.
“The only way forward is to end the war,” the negotiator reportedly said, adding: “Keep acting to get the public behind bringing about an end to the war.”
The TV report quoted sources in the defense establishment calling the current situation “fateful,” too, as regards the north, in that the absence of a deal could also mean an escalation in hostilities with Hezbollah, which some have assessed might agree to halt its attacks if an Israel-Hamas deal was reached.
Channel 12 added that families of hostages with dual Israeli-American citizenship were also hearing that the Biden administration is less optimistic than it was a week ago, when they were told it was working hard and fast on a new proposal.
That effort was ongoing, but the US mediators do not want to present a new proposal unless or until they see signs of potential progress. For now, they are urging fellow mediators Qatar and Egypt to see “what Hamas’s limits are,” the report said.
Citing White House officials, meanwhile, Axios reported that US President Joe Biden wants to present a new proposal, but his top aides think it would go nowhere, due to Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel control the Philadelphi Corridor, and the increase in the number of Palestinian terrorists Sinwar is demanding in return for the hostages.
Biden also does not want to make any concessions that would seem to reward Hamas’s recent murder of six hostages, the officials said.
US officials cited by Axios said there was “significant pessimism” at the White House after Hamas demanded that Israel release 100 more life-term murderers than had been agreed upon.
One official told Axios that “people at the White House are sad, upset and frustrated” over the state of the talks.
“We are still working, but we are not about to present anything imminently,” said the official. “We are in a tough spot.”
Murdered hostages struggled with their killers
The pessimistic reports came as Hebrew media also detailed the harsh conditions in which the six slain hostages were held, and the fight they put up as their captors prepared to execute them.
According to Channel 12, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesperson, has briefed some of the hostages’ families on their loved ones’ final days and moments.
The six were held in a small and very narrow tunnel, barely two-people wide, and too low for them to stand fully upright, the report said, adding that the lack of air vents made it difficult for the hostages to breathe.
There were reportedly no toilets or showers in the tunnel, and the hostages washed with water from the bottles they drank from. Protein bars were found in the tunnel, but the hostages had very little food — and lost weight to the point where one of them, 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi, weighed just 36 kilos (80 pounds).
The tunnel was said to have a generator, a small, faulty torch, a chess set, writing implements and notepads. The IDF has given the notepads to the respective families, the report said.
The IDF believes they were murdered about 10 days ago — a day or so before the IDF got to the tunnel, the report said. “Several of the six are assessed to have defended themselves and struggled with those who shot them,” it added. (A Channel 13 report cited “forensic” findings that show “Hersh, Ori, Alex and Almog defended Eden and Carmel.”)
The hostages “did everything to survive in impossible circumstances,” members of one unnamed family told Channel 12, “and, in the end, Hamas murdered them.”
“Their only demand was that the government save them, and the government failed in its mission,” they said.
Daily protests continue
Also Sunday night, hostages’ families and supporters launched their second straight week of daily demonstrations on Tel Aviv’s Begin Street, outside the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, as the security cabinet was set to convene there.
Nearby, on Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, activists and hostage families marked 10 years that Israeli civilian Avera Mengistu has been held in captivity.
Mengistu, 37, an Ethiopian-born Israeli civilian, entered the Strip of his own accord in 2014, while suffering from severe mental health issues, and was captured by Hamas.
The rally featured speeches from Mengistu’s father, Agarnesh Mengistu, as well as his brother Ilan; Shirley Nesher, the surveillance soldier who spotted Avera crossing the border into Gaza on September 7, 2014; and Yael Adar, mother of Tamir Adar, who was killed on October 7 and his body abducted to Gaza.
“It’s difficult for me to even imagine how you spend 10 years in this situation,” said Ilan Mengistu. “My mother sits every evening during the news and flips through to find your picture. She says: ‘I don’t understand the language, but if I see his picture I’ll know they’re talking about him, that they haven’t forgotten about him.”
The IDF’s announcement last Sunday that it had recovered the six hostages’ bodies from Gaza precipitated mass demonstrations later that day and on Saturday outside the IDF headquarters, on Tel Aviv’s Begin Street. The demonstrations each drew hundreds of thousands of people, according to organizers.
Hostage families and their supporters also began holding smaller, daily protests in the same place, each of which drew some 2,000 people, and these continued on Sunday.
Meanwhile in Washington, DC, several Israelis protested outside the home of Mike Herzog, Israel’s ambassador to the US, calling on him to publicly demand a hostage deal.
The protest featured Boaz Atzili, cousin of Aviv Atzili, whose body Hamas is holding in Gaza after murdering him in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
Footage on social media showed Atzili telling a couple of dozen protesters about an incident on Tuesday, in which Herzog reportedly refused to appear at a vigil for the six slain hostages at Washington’s Adas Israel synagogue because he was not going to be allowed to speak.
At a protest outside the residence of Israel's ambassador to the US Mike Herzog, a revealing story by Boaz Atzili, whose cousin was murdered and is being held in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/TqQBERwUpj
— Nathan Guttman (@nathanguttman) September 8, 2024
In response, protesters chanted, in Hebrew, “shame” — a popular chant at anti-government rallies in Israel.
It is believed that 97 hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The shock assault saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
