This Saturday, Israel withdrew the negotiators sent to Qatar after it considered that talks on a new ceasefire with Hamas had stalled after the ceasefire that expired on Friday morning. With Gaza under intense bombardment, the Islamist movement’s number two, Saleh al Aruri, has assured that there will be no new hostage exchange of Palestinian prisoners “until the aggression stops and there is a comprehensive and final ceasefire.” Israel categorically rejects this and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered on Friday that after the end of the ceasefire “the fight should be resumed with greater force.” The news fills the families of the abductees with uncertainty after a week full of hope. At the end of the Sabbath, thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv to demand new exchanges, urgently repeating two words: “Everyone” and “Now.”
“Due to the deadlock in the negotiations and on the instructions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad chief David Barnea ordered the negotiating team in Doha to return home,” the head of government’s statement said. Israel and Hamas blame each other for the failure of the negotiations. Netanyahu says the Islamist movement has refused to fulfill its obligation to release all living civilians in its custody. According to government officials quoted by Haaretz newspaper, he tried to add several entities to the list.
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One of the Hamas leaders, Khalil Al Hayya, instead points out that they received “a list of names of women who turned out to be soldiers” and that Israel has refused to “discuss the release of adult prisoners.” [hombres] for adult hostages [hombres]“. Talks continued despite these disagreements and the resumption of hostilities, but the intelligence chief ordered his team to return to Israel on Saturday.
Since the war began on October 7, Tel Aviv has been the scene of a concentration of families and their sympathizers who have mobilized as they saw the bombing progress and, although glorified in every speech, saw the return of the hostages in the stand Practice not on the priority list. Indeed, the government and the army are convinced that this is part of the same effort and that the military pressure, which has left more than 15,000 Palestinians dead, has forced Hamas to sit at the negotiating table.
This Saturday the concentration was different. First, because it came after a ceasefire that brought joy to dozens of families of Israeli abductees and was exchanged for three times as many Palestinian prisoners, but whose end on Friday dashed the hopes of others and those pushing for an exchange of all hostages , whether men or women, civilians or soldiers. Peppered with musical performances, it conveyed a mixture of joy for those freed and concern for those left behind. You could feel it in the speeches, more bitter than usual and at the end with the national anthem and the light of the cell phones held up to convey hope.
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Statements from the freedmen
It was also different because it featured, for the first time, the testimonies of released hostages, either on stage or on screens around the renamed Place of Hostages and Disappeared, so that anyone who did not fit in the place could follow. The square is strategically located in front of the Defense Ministry headquarters, where important decisions are made today and where Netanyahu appeared before the press back then.
“I have conflicting feelings: sadness and happiness,” Hadas Kalderon, whose two children, Erez and Sahar, were released on Saturday, said on stage. “A miracle happened to me. I hope it happens to all of you,” he said.
“I beg the leaders: get it out there [de Gaza] to the children and to everyone. I am the voice of many mothers and grandmothers asking: ‘Go out with the children now.’ I want to see them now, not when I’m lying in a coffin,” Yaffa Adar, 85, said on the screens. She was among those released under the pact, which lasted a week and was limited to women and minors. His grandson Tamir Adar remained excluded from the pact and continues to be kidnapped in the Strip. Similar words to Danielle Aloni, 44 years old and released on the 24th with her five-year-old daughter Emilia: “Give her back now. Immediately. There is no time.” Ditza Heiman, 84, recalled that food became scarcer as the days went by, putting the kidnapped people in “mortal danger.” “They must be returned immediately.”
Across the street, Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to do “everything possible” to recover all the hostages, but insisted that Israel had two other goals: “to destroy Hamas” and to ensure that “they never pose a threat again.” becomes”.
When the rally ended, it was the turn of a group that was even angrier at Netanyahu. It is the families outside the forum who represent the majority. Outside the Defense Ministry, Zohar Avigdori shouted over a loudspeaker: “We have already seen that it is possible [liberar rehenes en un acuerdo]so follow too […]. “What happens now that we have returned to the starting point?” he said, after attacking the executive branch for not fully welcoming all families without exception. “However, our prime minister seems to prefer speaking to journalists,” he said of the news conference.
Despite the announcement by Israeli negotiators, French President Emmanuel Macron told the climate summit in Dubai on Saturday that his country was “very concerned” about the resumption of fighting and announced that he would travel to Qatar to help reach a new ceasefire. Macron also called for a “permanent ceasefire” in the conflict between Israel and the Islamist militia.
In addition to the conflict parties Israel and Hamas, representatives of the Qatari government, the USA and Egypt also took part in the negotiations. Barnea thanked mediators for their cooperation and efforts “which resulted in the release of 84 Israeli women and children and 24 foreigners” who continued to be abducted in Gaza. In return, Israel released 240 women and minors it held in its prisons. In addition to the ceasefire and exchanges, the ceasefire included the importation of 200 trucks of humanitarian aid per day, including fuel, to try to alleviate the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave.
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