While Israel bids a bitter farewell to the latest hostages killed in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been criticized by relatives, is vowing revenge. He announced that Hamas would pay a “very high price” for the murder of the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were discovered last week in an underground tunnel in the south of the Gaza Strip. According to media reports, the Israeli Health Ministry said the hostages were shot at close range about 48 to 72 hours before the autopsy.
“Israel will not allow this massacre to happen,” Netanyahu said at a press conference in the evening. He apologized to the families of the dead “that we were not able to bring them back alive.” He himself is under massive criticism because relatives of the hostages accuse him of having condoned the deaths of the abducted people through his uncompromising stance in negotiations with the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas.
At his press conference, Netanyahu once again insisted that Israel’s military must maintain control of the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, a 14-kilometer-long strip on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. “We will not give up the Philadelphia Corridor,” he reiterated. This is a strategic and political necessity for Israel.
“This guy has now torpedoed everything with a speech”
However, if Israeli troops remain in the area, it will be extremely difficult to reach an agreement on a ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of hostages still held by the Islamist Hamas. Both Hamas and Egypt are demanding that Israel withdraw its soldiers. Egypt, together with the USA and Qatar, is mediating between Israel and Hamas, who do not negotiate directly with each other as a matter of principle.
The mediation talks continued by telephone even after the six bodies were found, a US government official involved in the negotiations told CNN. But Netanyahu’s press conference virtually destroyed the efforts: “This guy has now torpedoed everything with a speech,” the government official was quoted as saying.
US President Joe Biden, who is still hoping for a hostage deal, also criticized Netanyahu. When asked whether the Israeli prime minister was doing enough to reach an agreement, Biden replied during an appearance in Washington: “No.” Nevertheless, they are “very close” to a final agreement to release the remaining hostages from Hamas. When asked what led him to this assessment after the many unsuccessful attempts to reach a deal, Biden replied that hope dies last.
President asks for forgiveness
At the funeral of the killed hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Israel’s President Izchak Herzog spoke at the invitation of the family. In his eulogy, he also asked for forgiveness “that we were not able to bring your Hersh back alive.” Israel’s decision-makers now face an urgent task, Herzog said: “To save those who can still be saved.”
Fighters of the Islamist Hamas kidnapped the US-Israeli Goldberg-Polin from the Nova music festival to the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. He was only 23 years old.
New orders for hostage guards
A spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, spoke in the evening of “new orders” to the guards of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip in the event that Israeli troops approach their hiding place. The fact that the Israeli government clearly wants to free the hostages through military pressure rather than by concluding an agreement will result in “they returning to their families in coffins.”
Hostage video released
Hamas released a propaganda video showing kidnapped woman Eden Jerushalmi alive before the Israeli military discovered her body in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip last week. According to the Times of Israel newspaper, the 24-year-old’s family agreed to share a short sequence of the video. In it, the young woman says, according to the translation: “A message to my family that I love: I miss you, father, mother, sister Shani and May. I miss and love you all so much.” In similar cases, Israel has accused Hamas of psychological warfare.
Demonstrations for hostage agreement
At demonstrations in several parts of Israel, thousands of people demanded an agreement on the release of the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip. Protests with several thousand participants also took place near Netanyahu’s home a few hours after the funeral of a dead hostage. “Your decisions will lead to their deaths,” Israeli media quoted a man whose brother is still being held by Hamas as saying. There are also new calls for demonstrations on Tuesday.
During the day, employees of many organizations and authorities had already gone on strike – in protest against the slow progress of the negotiations on the release of the 100 or so hostages still believed to be in the Gaza Strip, and it is unclear how many of them are still alive. Many cities and municipalities joined the protest, others refused because they are more closely aligned with the government. A labor court finally ordered an early end to the strike on Monday afternoon because it was politically motivated.
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