The fate of the 240 hostages that Hamas has held hostage in Gaza since October 7 was debated this Tuesday at an extraordinary meeting of the Government of Israel. All the actors participating in the negotiation for the Islamist organization to release a group of hostages assured that the agreement was imminent, but, however, at the end of Tuesday it had not yet been made official.
Everything was hanging by a thread. From the meeting of the Israeli Executive, headed by Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu. As reported at that time by the progressive newspaper Haaretz, calling what was happening a “dramatic decision,” the agreement had to be voted on by the members of the Cabinet, but the newspaper claimed that the far-right ministers were against it.
The agreement brought to a vote by Netanyahu was also not officially known at that time, but media from several Middle Eastern countries, mainly Egyptian, insisted that Hamas would hand over 50 hostages and, in exchange, Israel would release between 150 and 300 Palestinian prisoners. All this facilitated by a ceasefire on both sides.
It seems that Netanyahu, with the extreme right within his Government, did not want to make a decision of this magnitude alone and, before the Council of Ministers, held two emergency meetings, both of the war cabinet – of which they are part, in addition to the premier , Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and opposition leader Benny Gantz – as well as the Israeli Security Council.
Before entering last night’s decisive meeting, the prime minister indicated that the release of both the Palestinian hostages and prisoners would be done in “stages” and that Israel “will not stop the war after the ceasefire,” assuming that there will be a pause in the bloody war in Gaza, which has already killed 14,128 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the strip’s health authorities.
During Tuesday, Netanyahu had said that he hoped to give “good news soon,” although making it clear that the ceasefire would not mean the end of the war or the Israeli objective of ending Hamas. “I want to make something very clear. “We are at war and we will continue to be at war until we achieve all our objectives, destroying Hamas and returning all our hostages and missing people,” Netanyahu said. The premier also assured that the agreement with the Islamist organization would include that the Red Cross will be able to visit the hostages and offer them medical help.
At the same time, the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniye, had also stated that the agreement was close. “The movement delivered its response to the brothers of Qatar and the mediators, and we are close to reaching a truce agreement,” said Haniye via Telegram from his refuge in Qatar, whose Government acts as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, with the decisive support of the United States. In this sense, the Qatari Foreign Minister, Majed al Ansari, maintained that the negotiations were at an advanced but critical moment.
US President Joe Biden had also been optimistic on Tuesday when telling reporters, before a meeting at the White House, that the pact for the release of the hostages and the ceasefire was “very close” and that I expected it to happen “very soon.”
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, relatives of the hostages intensified their daily street protests, pressuring Netanyahu to secure the release of the 240 kidnapped during the Hamas terrorist attack.
And while waiting for the ceasefire, the war continued in the strip. This Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) once again denounced an Israeli attack against its staff that, on this occasion, cost the lives of two doctors from this organization who worked at the Al Auda hospital, in northern Gaza. A third doctor also died in the same center, after being hit by artillery. The health NGO condemned these deaths and in a statement once again demanded “respect and protection for medical centers, staff and patients.” The Al Auda hospital is located in Beit Lahiya, very close to the Indonesian hospital, which was also attacked on Monday by Israeli artillery, further reducing the medical care capacity of the suffering Palestinian population.
On the other hand, the army released this Tuesday more images of the tunnel supposedly found under the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where rooms and an armored door can be seen. Israel took control of the largest health center in the strip days ago and since then has offered almost daily some information that seeks to show that the hospital was an operational site for Hamas. In this regard, Labor Party Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister (1999-2001), explained in an interview with CNN that the tunnels under Al Shifa were built by Israel. “Hamas is using these bunkers, originally built by an Israeli builder decades ago when we ruled Gaza,” Barak said, adding that the tunnels were designed to expand hospital services.
