Updated: 10am (AEST)
Jerusalem
Reuters
Israel’s foreign minister said on Saturday that a planned incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah could be suspended should a deal emerge to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
The comments came as international mediators push for a deal to achieve a ceasefire in the six months of devastating fighting in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages taken during Hamas’ 7th October assault that sparked the war.
Israel Katz, Foreign Minister to the United Nations points at family members of hostages in the audience during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, at UN headquarters in New York, US, on 11th March, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/David ‘Dee’ Delgado/ File photo
“The release of the hostages is the top priority for us,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said during an interview with local Channel 12 television.
Asked if that included putting off a planned operation to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city of Rafah, Katz answered, “Yes.”
He went on to say: “If there will be a deal, we will suspend the operation.”
Though Katz is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, he is not a member of the narrow-forum war cabinet overseeing the Gaza offensive.
Israel, which launched its war to annihilate Hamas after the Islamist group’s 7th October attacks on Israeli towns, says Rafah is home to four Hamas combat battalions reinforced by thousands of retreating fighters, and it must defeat them to achieve victory.
But Rafah, which abuts the Egyptian border, is sheltering more than a million Palestinians who fled the Israeli offensive through the rest of Gaza and say the prospect of fleeing yet again is terrifying.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas said it had received Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal in Egyptian- and Qatari-mediated negotiations and will study it before submitting its reply.
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On Thursday, the United States and 17 other countries appealed to Hamas to release all of its hostages as a pathway to end the crisis.
Hamas wants to parlay any deal into a permanent end to the fighting – short of a formal peace, as the Islamist group is sworn to Israel’s destruction. Israel plans to pursue the war until Hamas’s governing and military capacities are dismantled.
More than 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza captivity, including women and children.
A picture of Hamas hostage Keith Siegel is worn by his wife Aviva Siegel during the speech Volker Turk United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Human Rights Council on his report on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, on 29th February, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Denis Balibouse/File photo
As Hamas issued a new video showing two of the hostages pleading for their release and sending love to their families, thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv in protest, demanding that the government do more to secure their release.
The video is similarly filmed to previous hostage videos made public by the Islamist group, which Israel has condemned as psychological terrorism.
The two men, identified as Keith Siegel, 64, and Omri Miran, 47, speak individually in front of an empty background. They send their love to their families and ask to be released.
Miran was taken hostage from his home in the community of Nahal Oz in front of his wife and two young daughters during the Hamas killing spree that sparked the war in Gaza.
Siegel, who is a dual US citizen, was taken captive with his wife from another border town. She was later released during a brief November truce.
The video was published during the Passover holiday, when Jews traditionally celebrate the biblical story of gaining freedom from slavery in Egypt.
At one point Siegel breaks down crying as he recounts celebrating the holiday with his family last year and expressing his hope that they will be reunited.
Some 1,200 people were killed on 7th October, according to Israeli tallies, in the deadliest single attack in Israel’s history. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
