Netanyahu says he is ‘prepared to go far’ to secure release of hostages

Israeli prime minister pushes back on reports he has torpedoed possible deals with Hamas.

By JNS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday, said that he is “prepared to go very far to release all of our hostages, while maintaining the security of Israel.”

He also slammed media reports that portrayed Israel as rejecting the proposed agreement while Hamas has accepted it.

“Our commitment stands in complete contrast to the leaks and mendacious briefings on the issue of our hostages,” the premier said.

“These briefings harm the negotiations and, to my great regret, they also mislead the hostages’ dear families. They create a false impression that Hamas has agreed to a deal while the government of Israel is opposed to it.

“The complete opposite is true. The simple truth is, that as of now Hamas has not agreed to the most basic conditions of the outline,” Netanyahu continued.

“While we have not added even a single demand to the outline, it is Hamas which has demanded to add dozens of changes. It has not withdrawn its demand that Israel not be able to return to the war. It demands that we withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing—its lifelines [on Gaza’s Sinai border], which would allow it to rearm and rebuild its strength. It is important to determine the principle: We are not leaving from there.

“Hamas is also unprepared to allow any mechanism to check for and prevent the passage of munitions and terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip. It is doing all this because it wants to recover and rebuild, and return again and again to the massacre of October 7, as it has promised to do,” Netanyahu continued.

“The fact is that it is Hamas which is preventing the release of our hostages, and which continues to oppose the outline, and not the government of Israel, which has accepted it.

“Whoever, like us, wants the release of our hostages needs to direct the pressure onto Hamas, and not onto the government of Israel.

“For our part, we will continue to apply military pressure on Hamas and its senior figures, until the return of all of our hostages and the achievement of all of the objectives for the war,” the prime minister said.

New demands?

Netanyahu spoke after Axios reporter Barak Ravid reported that Saturday’s ceasefire negotiations in Cairo between a high-level Israeli delegation and Egyptian officials had stalled due to Netanyahu’s supposedly new demands, according to two Israeli officials.

The talks in Cairo, which on the Israeli side were led by Mossad Director David Barnea and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head Ronen Bar, also focused on security arrangements around the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons and other materials across Egypt-Gaza border.

Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s coordinator of government activities in the territories (COGAT), was also in Cairo, to discuss with the Egyptians the opening of the Rafah border crossing, one of the conditions of a possible deal.

Israeli officials told Axios that Barnea, Bar and other senior security and intelligence officials involved in the negotiations are convinced that Netanyahu does not want to move ahead with an agreement despite what he told President Joe Biden at the White House recently.

Netanyahu and the negotiating team held a difficult meeting that turned into a shouting match, Channel 12 reported on Friday. Bar reportedly confronted Netanyahu, saying that if he wants to back away from a hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists deal he should be up front about it.

The prime minister reportedly responded by calling them “weaklings” and working in the interests of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar instead of exerting pressure on the terrorist organization.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement published by Axios that he is not obstructing a deal.

“Sinwar is the obstacle to the agreement and not the prime minister, who is willing to go a long, long way to release our hostages who are dear to him, while maintaining Israel’s security and preventing conditions that would allow Hamas to regain control of the Strip, threaten Israel, and return to commit the atrocities of October 7,” the statement said.

At the Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that he green-lit the Cairo delegation to continue to advance the negotiations.

“I insist that the maximum number of living hostages be freed in the first stage of the deal, and that the leverage for pressing for the release of all of hostages later be preserved,” he said.