(Jerusalem) The Israeli Prime Minister on Wednesday accused Hamas of having “rejected” en bloc “everything” that was proposed during the negotiations under the aegis of an international mediator with a view to obtaining a truce in Gaza in exchange for the release of the hostages held there.
“Hamas has rejected everything,” Netanyahu said at a news conference, where he downplayed accusations that his insistence that Israel retain control of a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt is preventing negotiations from succeeding.
“We are trying to find areas on which to start negotiations. [mais] they refuse [et disent] “There is nothing to discuss,” Netanyahu added, “so I hope that will change because I want these hostages to be released.”
Since the announcement of the discovery on Sunday of the bodies of six additional hostages by the Israeli army, Mr. Netanyahu has been subjected to strong pressure from outside, notably from the United States (a member of the mediation with Qatar and Egypt), but also from within the Israeli population, in order to reach an agreement for the release of the hostages in exchange for a truce in the fighting that would allow for a permanent and definitive ceasefire after almost eleven months of war.
PHOTO FLORION GOGA, REUTERS
Demonstration demanding the release of hostages, in Tel Aviv on September 4
According to the Israeli army, the six hostages found on Sunday were shot at point-blank range by their captors in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip.
During his press conference, Mr. Netanyahu reiterated his desire for Israel to retain control of the Philadelphia Corridor, a buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, for as long as he deems it necessary, to prevent Hamas from bringing weapons into the Palestinian territory or exfiltrating hostages or some of its fighters through tunnels to Egypt.
“Apply pressure”
” It’s necessary […] “to pressure them to release the remaining hostages,” he said: “If you want the hostages released, you have to control the Philadelphia corridor.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States recognized “the very real need that Israel has to ensure that there can be no smuggling through the Philadelphia corridor.”
But “we believe there are ways to resolve” this issue, he added, calling on both Hamas and Israel to make the necessary concessions to reach an agreement.
Speaking to reporters, Netanyahu nevertheless said that the issue of control of the Philadelphia corridor was far from being the only sticking point in the negotiations.
According to him, the question of how many Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should be released in exchange for each freed hostage, or a possible Israeli veto on the release of some of these prisoners, are among those “that have not been resolved” at this stage.
PHOTO ABIR SULTAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed to reporters the importance for Israel to control the Philadelphia Corridor that separates Egypt from the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Islamist movement has for its part accused Mr. Netanyahu for weeks of obstructing the negotiations by regularly setting new conditions that it considers unacceptable.
The Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 97 are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli army.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign on the Gaza Strip has devastated the tiny Palestinian territory and left at least 40,861 people dead, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza, which does not provide details on the number of civilians and fighters killed. The majority of the dead are women and children, according to the UN.