Benjamin Netanyahu has sent a delegation to negotiate a hostage deal release with Hamas as pressure is piled on Israel from hostage advocates and critics of the campaign in Gaza to end the war, a government official said today.
Netanyahu will have consultations with his ceasefire negotiations team prior to cabinet meetings this evening, and will speak with US President Joe Biden, the source said.
‘Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated that the war will end only after all its objectives have been achieved and not a moment before,’ said the official, who did not specify where the delegation had been sent.
Israel has vowed to fully vanquish Hamas for its role in the October 7 attacks, a joint offensive into southern Israel led by Gaza’s de facto governing authority that saw 1,170 killed and some 240 people taken captive.
The government has also pledged to return all the hostages – but has had limited success since the negotiation of a temporary truce in November, in which 105 hostages were released in return for some 240 Palestinian protestors.
Renewed overtures to ceasefire talks came as tensions ratchet up over clashes to the north, with Hezbollah firing 200 rockets into Israel after one of its senior commanders was killed.
File photo. Netanyahu will send a delegation to negotiate the return of the remaining hostages
Thousands holding banners and gather in Tel Aviv during a demonstration to demand a hostage swap deal and the dismissal of the government led by Netanyahu on June 29
Israeli tanks manoeuvre near the border after entering Israel from Gaza on July 4
Smoke rises following the Israeli bombardment of Gaza City on July 4
Netanyahu’s latest effort to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza came as Israel yesterday received Hamas’ response to a proposal made public at the end of May by US president Biden.
The American proposal included the release of about 120 hostages in Gaza in return for a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
There are approximately 120 hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas, though US officials estimate fewer than half may still be alive.
Israel reiterated last month it would not accept any ceasefire deal unless all the hostages are returned.
Israel also maintains it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
Still, US official said today the US saw a ‘significant opening’ in the proposed talks.
A Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters that Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, has shown flexibility over some clauses, that would allow a framework agreement to be reached should Israel approve.
Two Hamas officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hamas has said any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
But while Israel has vowed, under considerable pressure from allies and advocates of hostages, to scale back the offensive in Gaza to a ‘low intensity’ war, its armed forces are faced with a new challenge to the north.
Clashes between Israel’s Defense Forces and Iranian proxies Hezbollah – and the Houthis in Yemen – have been ongoing for months, with nearly 100,000 people displaced from their homes in south Lebanon alone.
But with clashes on the border ramping up in recent months, the Prime Minister has said some of the troops in Gaza may be used to strengthen the line on Israel’s northern front.
Today, Hezbollah militants fired 200 rockets at several military bases in Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its senior commanders.
The attack was one of the largest in the months-long conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border, with tensions escalating in recent weeks.
The Israeli military said ‘numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets’ had entered its territory from Lebanon, many of which it said were intercepted. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
It said about 200 ‘projectiles’ were launched toward the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and more than 20 drones into Israeli territory, but that it had intercepted some of them.
Following the attack, Israel struck various towns in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it hit Hezbollah’s ‘military structures’ in the southern border towns of Ramyeh and Houla.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported an Israeli drone strike of Houla killed at least one person. Israeli jets also broke the sound barrier over the Lebanese capital and other areas in the country.
Israel on Wednesday acknowledged that it had killed Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who headed one of Hezbollah’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon, a day earlier.
Hours after the killing, Hezbollah launched scores of Katyusha rockets and Falaq rockets with heavy warheads into northern Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
It launched more rockets on Thursday and said it had also sent exploding drones into several bases.
Palestinians walk past debris from previous Israeli bombardments, in Khan Yunis on July 4
A fire truck arrives at the scene of a fire after rockets fired from southern Lebanon hit an area in the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel on July 4
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets and explosive drones at Israeli military positions on July 4 as tensions have soared
Fire and smoke billows in northern Israel after rockets fired from southern Lebanon
An Israeli firefighter airplane drops flame retardant on fires smoke after rockets hit Israel today
The relatively low-level conflict erupted shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Hezbollah says it is striking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, another Iran-allied group that ignited the war in Gaza with its October 7 attack into southern Israel.
The group’s leadership says it will stop its attacks once there is a ceasefire in Gaza, and that while it does not want war, it is ready for one.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, say they could decide to go to war in Lebanon if efforts for a diplomatic solution fail.
Israel sees Hezbollah as its most direct threat and estimates that it has an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles.
In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war that ended in a draw.
