The Israeli army warned the Benjamin Netanyahu government that without reaching an agreement with Hamas, any large-scale military operation in Gaza would endanger the lives of the Israeli hostages, Hebrew media reported, Tuesday.
Israel holds at least 9,500 Palestinian prisoners in its jails whilest it is estimated 101 Israeli hostages are being held in Gaza. The Palestinian group Hamas announced that dozens of these hostages have been killed due to indiscriminate Israeli air strikes all over the Gaza Strip.
“The IDF (army) made it clear to the political echelons [government] that without a deal [with Hamas], it must be understood that any extensive ground operation in the Gaza Strip has a meaning — risking the lives of abductees,” Yedioth Ahronoth reported according to Anadolu.
The Israeli newspaper cited an unnamed senior military official who said “the cabinet will have to decide whether it takes responsibility for the lives of the abductees.”
6 Israeli hostages
The report added the military has intensified its warnings to the government since discovering the bodies of six Israeli hostages in a tunnel in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza last Saturday.
The Netanyahu government is accusing Hamas for the killing of these hostages, while the movement maintain they were killed in an Israeli airstrike as part of the Israeli ongoing war in Gaza that literally decimated the enclave as 50,000 bombs were dropped on the territory according to Haaretz.
The deaths of the hostages have sparked a new wave of anger in Israel against Netanyahu, with daily protests taking place holding him personally responsible for their deaths and demanding that he makes a deal with Hamas to exchange the remaining hostages originally at 250.
For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have tried to reach an accord between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
But mediation efforts failed with Netanyahu frustrating every effort by the Israeli delegates to reach a deal with Hamas over the past 11 months or so. He monitored his team – who frequently travelled to Doha and Cairo to hitch a deal – to the minutest details and the delegates have not been allowed any leeway in the negotiations without returning to him first.
A key sticking point in the hostages/ceasfire talks is Netanyahu’s insistence on maintaining the Israeli military’s presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, a demilitarized zone along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Hamas on the other hand demands a complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territory and says no meaningful negotiations can take place if the Israeli military wants to stay there.
Philadelphi Corridor
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant agrees there should be a withdrawal for the sake of the hostages. He recently stated that Israel’s withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor during the first phase of a deal would not pose a security threat to his country.
But not so for Netanyahu. In a press conference Monday, he said that achieving the war goals that he set “requires maintaining the Philadelphi Corridor.” He emphasized Israel will never withdraw from the corridor.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza following an attack on 7 October, 2023 by Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The onslaught resulted in more than 40,800 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and nearly 94,300 injuries, according to local health authorities in Gaza.
An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.
Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.
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