Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that he will not give in to pressure to conclude an agreement to free hostages held in Gaza since October, and reiterated that he intends to maintain military pressure on the Palestinian movement Hamas.
The hostages were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. The Israeli retaliation left tens of thousands dead in the besieged Palestinian territory, which was targeted by new attacks on Tuesday.
The discovery of the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel in Gaza, announced on Sunday, brought thousands of people onto the streets on Monday and triggered a general strike in Israel, in an attempt to increase pressure on the government to reach an agreement with Hamas.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and a general strike was followed in several cities across the country.
After publicly apologising for not bringing back the six hostages found dead alive, Netanyahu on Monday evening accused Hamas of having “executed” them with a “bullet in the back of the head” and promised that the Islamist movement would pay a “very high price”.
I will not give in to pressure (…) No one is more committed to the release of the hostages than I am. No one can give me lessons on this. he said at a press conference in Jerusalem.
“We must now exert maximum pressure on Hamas,” which “must make concessions,” Netanyahu added.
In this context, he reaffirmed the need for Israel to maintain control of the Philadelphia corridor along the border between Gaza and Egypt, a stumbling block in the negotiations.
For months, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, mediators in the conflict, have been trying to convince Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire agreement that would include the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners held by Israel.
– “Never an agreement” –
“Control of the Philadelphia corridor ensures that the hostages have not been smuggled out of Gaza,” Netanyahu said.
The Islamist movement, however, demands that all Israeli forces leave Palestinian territory.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, warned that the hostages still held in Gaza would return “in coffins” if Israel maintained its military pressure “instead of reaching an agreement.”
Netanyahu “wants to occupy Gaza indefinitely. Israel will never give back territory that it needs for its security,” Mairav Zonszein, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP on Tuesday. “He basically announced that there will never be a deal on the hostages.”
The left-wing Haaretz newspaper wrote: “Netanyahu wants above all to protect his political position. He is trying to maintain his coalition, which could collapse if a deal is reached on Gaza.”
US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main ally, on Monday criticised the Israeli prime minister for not doing enough to reach a deal with Hamas.
Netanyahu says he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist movement by the United States and the European Union.
The war broke out on October 7 when an attack by Hamas fighters inside Israel killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures.
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Islamist fighters also kidnapped 251 people, 97 of whom are still being held in Gaza and 33 of whom have been killed, according to the Israeli army.
In response to the attack, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a vast retaliation that has already left 40,819 dead in the Palestinian territory, according to the Gaza Strip’s Ministry of Health, and displaced almost all of the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants.