Netanyahu Wants War, Not Free The Captives – Israeli Analysts

• CrossFireArabia
• August 23, 2024

Israeli analysts said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would rather have his forces remain in the Philadelphi corridor on the border with Egypt than recover the living prisoners from the Gaza Strip. They stressed that the Israeli government is pushing to frustrate the ongoing truce negotiations.

According to Channel 12 military affairs correspondent Nir Dvori, the army estimates the six prisoners whose bodies Israel announced were recovered this week may have been killed by Israeli fire.

Dvori said that these prisoners had been held by Hamas for a long time and could have been returned alive. He added: It is crucial to reach a deal because “there are 109 other captives rotting in the tunnels and they can be saved.”

Ohad Hamo, Arab affairs correspondent for Channel 12, downplayed the moral significance of recovering the bodies of the prisoners. He said: “Hamas, historically, pays great attention to soldiers, which is understandable if we look at what happened with soldier Gilad Shalit.”

Netanyahu does not encourage negotiations

In this context, Dana Weiss, a political analyst for Channel 12, said Netanyahu himself said he does not believe there is a possibility of reaching an agreement regarding the prisoners and that he is determined to remain in the Netzarim and Philadelphi axes and he is committed to what guarantees him a return to fighting, stressing this kind of “talk does not encourage Hamas to negotiate.”

Weiss added: “In practice, Netanyahu has not budged on the issue of adhering to Netzarim and Philadelphi, and Egypt has confirmed this is unacceptable and there is a state of frustration among the negotiators and the security services.”

According to Weiss, the Israeli negotiators informed Netanyahu “there is no room for negotiations without showing flexibility on Netzarim and Philadelphi, but he told them that it is a political issue and that if he had to choose between Philadelphi and the prisoners, he would choose the former.”

Talia Danzig, the granddaughter of one of the six prisoners whose bodies were recovered from Gaza, said Netanyahu “has disappointed me repeatedly and I do not expect anything from him, but I expect the people to go to the square of the kidnapped (prisoners) because we do not want to live any longer in this calamity.”

She added to Channel 12:  “We do not want to live in this devastation.. We want a deal that will return the prisoners alive in a safe manner without risking the lives of soldiers.”

Commenting on this statement, former army spokesman Ronen Manelis said: “You heard what Danzig said and the people who no longer care about the issue of the prisoners must wake up and return to the streets again.”

Manelis added: “Netanyahu must explain how the Philadelphi corridor became so important while Israel did not think of occupying it until eight months after the war and even if it withdrew from it, it can return to it again and reoccupy it within two days if Hamas rebuilds its capabilities,” noting Israel “delayed occupying this corridor because it was afraid to enter it.”

For her part, Moria Wallberg, a political affairs correspondent for Channel 13, said that the negotiating delegation’s visit to Cairo, scheduled for this week, is now in great doubt due to Netanyahu’s position, which renders the negotiations pointless, according to the head of the prisoners’ file in the army, Major General Nitzan Alon.

Wallberg said Netanyahu informed the negotiating team he knows how to manage negotiations and that he had previously managed them with the workers’ union, and that security officials responded that the labor union negotiations were without a time limit, while the prisoners’ negotiations are under pressure because every day that passes means the death of more of them.

Finally, Yisrael Ziv, former head of the army’s operations unit, said that Israel is doing nothing but retrieving bodies in coffins, noting “Hamas, after retrieving some of the prisoners alive, transferred the rest to places from which it is difficult to rescue them without a deal.”

Ziv concluded by saying: “They [Israeli army] returned six bodies and buried them without any ceremony or respect, and this reflects this government’s handling of the prisoners’ issue,” as stated on Jo24 based on the Al Jazeera Satellite Channel.