Families described an aggressive meeting Thursday with Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, who told them the government wasn’t ready to sign a deal to bring all hostages home and there was no plan B.
Hanegbi said this week he expects the war to continue another seven months to destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group.
Netanyahu has promised “total victory” that would remove Hamas from power, dismantle its military structure and return the hostages. On Saturday, his government said its conditions for ending the war hadn’t changed.
Many hostages’ families accuse the government of a lack of will to secure a deal.
“We know that the government of Israel has done an awful lot to delay reaching a deal, and that has cost the lives of many people who survived in captivity for weeks and weeks and months and months,” Sharone Lifschitz said. Her mother, Yocheved, was freed in November but her father, Oded, is still held.
The first phase of the deal proposed by Biden would last for six weeks and include a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The second phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The third phase calls for the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from the war’s devastation.
Biden acknowledged that keeping the proposal on track would be difficult, with a number of “details to negotiate” to move from the first phase to the second. Biden said if Hamas fails to fulfil its commitment under the deal, Israel can resume military operations.
Hamas said Friday it viewed the proposal “positively” and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to an agreement that includes a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a prisoner exchange and other conditions.
In Deir al-Balah, where many Palestinians have fled following Israel’s ground assault on Rafah, there was some hope.