Netanyahu tells parents of hostage Israel is working on deal to free 10 captives

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the parents of hostage Eitan Mor that the government is working on a deal that would see 10 of the remaining captives released by Gaza terror groups, the Tikva Forum said Monday.

Mor, 23, was working as a security guard at the Nova rave music festival when he was captured. His father Tzvika is a co-founder of the Tikva Forum, a right-wing alternative to the mainline hostage advocacy group.

Netanyahu called Mor’s parents on Sunday evening to update them on efforts to secure a deal to release the hostages.

“Tzvika and Efrat Mor emphasized to the prime minister the position of the Tikva Forum that all the hostages need to be released in one phase on the same bus, without selektzia between them,” the forum said, using a Holocaust-era term used to describe Nazi Germany’s distinction between Jews deemed fit for hard labor and those sent straight to be murdered.

Talks have reportedly been deadlocked over Israel’s demand that the terror group free 11 of the hostages in exchange for an extended ceasefire, while Hamas has offered to release five.

The Tikva Forum statement indicated that Israel was now demanding 10 hostages. A Hamas official quoted by Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen also said the group was looking at an Israeli proposal for a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for 10 hostages.

According to reports over the weekend, in its latest proposal, Israel expressed readiness to lower the number of hostages released. The Ynet news site said Sunday that Israel was waiting for a response from the terror group to a proposal to release nine or 10 living hostages — including US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, who was featured for the second time in a Hamas propaganda video released Saturday.

Responding to Netanyahu’s comments to the Mor family, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the majority of the families of those held captive, urged the premier to reach an agreement that would see all the remaining hostages freed immediately.

“While the families wait hopefully and would welcome the release of any hostage from Hamas captivity, we continue to call for a comprehensive deal that will return ALL hostages immediately,” the Forum said in a statement.

“Every additional day in captivity endangers the lives of those still being held by Hamas terrorists, who are subjecting them to horrific conditions including starvation, physical abuse, and confinement in darkness,” the Forum said. “We urge the obvious, possible, and appropriate solution: End the war and return all the hostages, the living and the dead, immediately.”

An unnamed Egyptian source told Reuters that Hamas has asked for more time to respond to the latest hostage-truce proposal.

Sources said a delegation led by the terror group’s Gaza Chief Khalil Al-Hayya had rejected an effort to restore the previous ceasefire agreement, saying that any agreement must lead to an end to the war in Gaza.

Hamas has shown some flexibility over how many hostages it could free in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should a truce be extended, but asked for more time to consider the offer.

“Hamas has no problem, but it wants guarantees Israel agrees to begin the talks on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement,” leading to an end to the war, the Egyptian source said.

“We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious prisoner swap deal, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid,” Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, told AFP.

Nunu accused Israel of obstructing progress toward a ceasefire.

“The issue is not the number of captives,” he said, “but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war.”

“Hamas has therefore stressed the need for guarantees to compel the occupation [Israel] to uphold the agreement,” he added.

Netanyahu has long insisted that he would not agree to a permanent ceasefire nor a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities have been fully dismantled.

The war was sparked by the Hamas-led onslaught on October 7, 2023, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Gaza terror groups are holding 59 hostages, only 24 of whom are still believed to be alive.

The Saudi Al-Arabiya channel reported Sunday night that Hamas is willing to release a greater number of hostages under a new truce proposal than it had previously agreed to, with the US reportedly telling the terror group it will pressure Israel into entering talks to end the war.

According to reports over the weekend, Israel has expressed readiness to lower the number of hostages it will demand to be released.

The Hebrew media reports echoed reporting from The Times of Israel on Friday, citing two officials familiar with the talks who said Israel had come down slightly from its earlier demand that 11 living hostages be released to revive the ceasefire deal. After meeting with Trump last week in Washington, Netanyahu agreed to soften his demands, the two officials said.

The Al-Arabiya report, citing unnamed sources, said that the drafting of the new deal is in its final stages and that Hamas has given an initial agreement to raise the number of hostages to be freed. The report did not specify the number of hostages that would potentially be released.

If a deal is reached under the proposed draft, hostages will be released in two stages alongside agreements on the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip, the report said.

The report also said that while the US has told Hamas it will pressure Israel into entering talks to end the fighting, discussions on whether leaders from the terror group will be permitted to stay in Gaza have been postponed to a later time.

The Saudi outlet also said that under the potential agreement, medical reports would be provided by the terrorists on the conditions of the remaining hostages.

Hostage’s mother: PM told me he knows where captives are located

Since the IDF resumed operations in Gaza, hostage families have been concerned the fighting will endanger the lives of their loved ones.

Ruhama Bohbot, mother of hostage Elkana Bohbot, said Monday that Netanyahu had told her “with full confidence” that Israel knows where the hostages are being held.

Bohbot told Army Radio that the premier stated Israeli forces are staying away from those areas, so as not to endanger the captives.

Also, in a video addressed to Netanyahu on Monday, Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, said: “My son Matan has been held in a tunnel together with the soldier who holds American citizenship, Edan Alexander, who is expected to be released first in any deal. According to medical information in my possession, Matan was kidnapped while likely suffering from a form of muscular dystrophy that affects most of our family members. Due to the harsh conditions of captivity and the stress he is under, we know his condition has deteriorated.”

She said Matan is “shackled in heavy chains, unable even to stand up in the tunnel that is lower than his height. He is going through a holocaust. There is serious concern for Matan’s well-being if he remains alone in the tunnel. The isolation will lead to further deterioration and will be a death sentence for Matan.”

Zangauker demanded that “if there is a deal in which Edan is released, then Matan — who is held with him — must also be released. Matan will not survive alone, and he must be brought out. He is the most humanitarian case among the hostages. If Matan is abandoned to die alone in the tunnel, all of Israel will know that the prime minister deliberately chose to hand down a death sentence on a citizen who was kidnapped from his home in his pajamas — purely out of personal vengeance against his family.”

While Israel signed onto the phased framework that went into place in January, Netanyahu has largely refused even to hold negotiations regarding the exact terms of phase two, which the deal stipulated were supposed to have started on February 3.

Instead, he has sought to extend the first phase of the deal through proposals that would see the release of additional hostages while still allowing Israel to resume fighting against Hamas.

The premier is backed by many of his hardline coalition partners who have threatened to collapse his government if he agrees to end the war.

However, successive polls have indicated that the government is out of step with the majority of Israelis who back ending the war that was started with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack in exchange for the release of all 59 remaining hostages.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.