Netanyahu: “Those who kill hostages do not want a deal”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday again blamed Hamas for the lack of a truce agreement and accused it of failing to hold "real negotiations" since December, hours after the bodies of six hostages were found last night in Rafah, southern Gaza.

"Those who kill hostages do not want a deal," Netanyahu said in a recorded message today. "We, for our part, will not give up. The Israeli government is committed, and I am personally committed, to continue fighting for a deal that will return all our hostages and guarantee our security and existence."

Shortly before, representatives of the hostages' families had asked him to appear publicly and his own Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, had urged him to reverse the decision to keep Israeli troops on the Gaza border with Egypt.

Netanyahu said that three months ago, on May 27, Israel agreed to a hostage release deal with the full backing of the United States, but that Hamas refused.

"Even after the United States updated the draft agreement on August 16, we agreed and Hamas refused again," he added.

Hamas, however, accuses Netanyahu of having recently added new demands, such as the permanence of Israeli troops in the Philadelphia corridor - on the border between Gaza and Egypt - and in the Netzarim corridor, an artificial strip created in the war that divides Gaza from north to south.

"Any agreement must include a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the freedom of return of residents to their areas, aid and reconstruction, and a serious exchange agreement (of hostages for imprisoned terrorists)," Hamas argued on August 25 after another round of fruitless negotiations.

In recent months, eight hostages have been rescued alive through military operations, compared to 8 captives freed in the only agreement (truce) reached in November, the Hostage Families Forum reproached Netanyahu today.

For his part, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich expressed his rejection of any "surrender agreement" on X today and said that it was time to "reduce the Strip."

"The Israel Defense Forces should advance two kilometers inland from the current border and clear everything in their path. This is territory that will never return to the hands of the inhabitants of Gaza," the minister said in X.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has asked the head of the Histadrut labor federation to call a general strike in the face of the inaction of "Netanyahu and his cabinet of death." Relatives of the hostages have announced protests across the country today and throughout the week. EFE and Aurora