PM holds meeting on hostage talks as Hamas reviews Israeli proposal, rejects disarmament
Premier’s office says Netanyahu ordered ‘continuation of measures to advance the release of hostages’; senior Hamas member says ‘there is no room for any partial deal’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday held a situational assessment regarding the hostages being held in Gaza, together with his hostage negotiating team and senior defense officials, his office announced.
The premier “instructed the continuation of measures to advance the release of [the] hostages,” said the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement, without giving further details.
Hebrew media outlets reported that the consultation was held via phone, and initially said Shin Bet head Ronen Bar participated despite an escalating feud between him and the government, which voted last month to fire the spy chief. Later reports said Bar did not participate. His dismissal is currently on hold due to a temporary injunction issued by the High Court of Justice.
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told AFP that the terror group was still preparing its response to an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, while reiterating its stance against an agreement that does not end the war started by its October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.
“The movement’s response is still in preparation, and we affirm that there is no room for any partial deal,” said Mahmoud Mardawi, insisting that Hamas’s “weapons will not be subject to any negotiations.”
The Israeli military said earlier Wednesday that the ongoing campaign in the Gaza Strip is aimed at continuing to ramp up pressure on Hamas to bring the terror group to agree to a hostage deal, while also preparing the ground for a potential major offensive, though such an operation has not yet begun.
The current operation is being carried out slowly, both to ensure the safety of troops and guarantee that hostage talks can continue, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The military has set no deadline for when the major offensive would begin, and it would be decided upon by elected leaders.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 30 hostages and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014 is still being held by Hamas, and is counted among the 59 hostages.
Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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