Internal and external pressure on Israel’s National Unity Government has increased in recent hours to secure the release of more than 230 hostages, with Hamas releasing a video featuring three women, with one of them asking for her release in return for all Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s Prime Minister vowed to release everyone from captivity – on the day one hostage was taken and another was known to have been killed – and ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire, after comparing the terrorist attacks on the 7th with the Pearl bombing. .
“You have caused us so much damage that you will never be able to make up for it, so the least you can do is save everyone who can be saved at any cost,” a relative of a Hamas hostage said on Sunday evening. When Israel’s Defense Minister met with families affected by the September 7 kidnappings, Yoav Gallant heard criticism and requests for the government to accede to Hamas’ conditions: release of all hostages (the Islamists claim between 200 and 250 people to be held, Tel. Aviv says more than 230 for all Palestinian prisoners.
A few days ago, the Palestinian Authority’s head of Palestinian prisoners, Qadura Farès, estimated in statements cited by Al Jazeera that the number of prisoners is well over ten thousand, compared to half in July. But Gallant refused the family members’ request, claiming that circumstances do not allow this and that Hamas’s goal is to create division and distrust in the government. The answer, he said, lies in the level of pressure in Gaza. “The greater the pressure, the greater the opportunities.”
Hours later, it was Hamas’ turn to put pressure on Tel Aviv by releasing a video showing three hostages. Just over a minute later, the woman in the center, later identified as Daniel Aloni, addressed Netanyahu in Hebrew: “You promised to free us all. Instead, we suffer from your political and military failure.”
The hostage, who was kidnapped along with her daughter while visiting her family in Kibbutz Nir Oz, recalled that no one from the security forces came to help that community, and then asked what the purpose of the ground operations in Gaza was: “Do you want us kill them all with an army?” After saying that they are being held in “unbearable conditions”, Aloni, increasingly emotional, ends by calling for the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners. “Free us all. Let us return to our families! ‘ In response, Netanyahu called the video “cruel psychological propaganda,” identified each of the hostages – the other two are Yelena Trupanova and Rimon Kirsht – and vowed to “bring home all the kidnapped and missing people.”
Different fortunes for two kidnapped women on the same day. Soldier Ori Megidish was recovered from Gaza during a night operation and is in good health, according to the Israeli army. Shani Louk, a 23-year-old German-Israeli woman who was kidnapped on October 7 while participating in a music festival, was reported dead by the Israeli government. According to Haaretz, the Institute of Forensic Medicine identified a bone collected at the festival site as coming from the base of Louk’s skull and that the fragment indicated an injury that he could not survive.
Netanyahu received support from former Prime Minister Yair Lapid for “any decision” to release the kidnapped. “We will give our full support to any decision and initiative, at any cost, that leads to the return of the hostages,” the opposition leader said, while calling for the execution of key Hamas leaders. At a press conference, Netanyahu expressed satisfaction with the “systematic progress” made by the army in Gaza and dispelled any doubts about calls for “humanitarian pauses.”
“The calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas. That will not happen,” he assured, after comparing the situation to calls for the United States to agree to a ceasefire after being attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. Netanyahu, leader of a government with 20% support from voters, shrugged off questions about whether he would resign: “The only thing I’m going to make them resign from is Hamas. We are going to send them to the government dustbin.” history. That’s my goal. That is my responsibility.’
Source: DN
