Netanyahu says anyone who murders hostages doesn’t want a cease-fire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed sorrow over the deaths of six hostages, saying the killings prove that Hamas does not want a cease-fire deal.

Mr. Netanyahu said Sunday (September 1, 2024) that he was heartbroken to hear the news of the hostages’ deaths.

He accused Hamas of killing them in “cold blood” and said Israel would hold the group accountable. He also accused the group of scuttling ongoing cease-fire efforts.

“Whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal,” he said.

Critics in Israel have accused Mr. Netanyahu of dragging his feet in cease-fire talks — a charge he denies.

Israel on Sunday (September 1, 2024) said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including a young Israeli-American man who became one of the most well-known captives held by Hamas as his parents met with world leaders and pressed for his release, including at the Democratic convention last month.

The military said all six had been killed shortly before the arrival of Israeli forces trying to rescue them. Their recovery sparked calls for mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom many families of hostages and much of the wider Israeli public blame for failing to bring them back alive in a deal with Hamas to end the 10-month-old war. Negotiations over such a deal have dragged on for months.

The army identified the other hostages as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33, who were also taken from the music festival. The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was abducted from the nearby farming community of Be’eri.

It said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, around a kilometer (0.6 mile) from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued alive last week.

Mr. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and says military pressure is needed to bring home the hostages. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that he got into a shouting match at a security cabinet meeting late Thursday with his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who accused him of prioritizing control over a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border — a major sticking point in the talks — over the lives of the hostages.

The Cabinet reportedly voted in favor of remaining in the corridor over the objections of Mr. Gallant, who said it would prevent a hostage deal.

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“In the name of the state of Israel, I hold their families close to my heart and ask forgiveness,” Mr. Gallant said Sunday (September 1, 2024) after the hostage remains were recovered. He later called for the Cabinet to reverse its decision. There was no immediate comment from Mr. Netanyahu.

Two previous Israeli operations to free hostages killed scores of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.

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Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, attacking army bases and several farming communities.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were fighters or civilians. It has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe.