Kfir Bibas – baby hostage held by Hamas in Gaza
The new round of negotiations for the return of 115 Israeli hostages who have been held in Gaza by Hamas terrorists for almost 11 months are currently underway in Doha, the capital of Qatar. While the return to the negotiating table by both sides has raised the hopes of many, many more are skeptical about the possibility of reaching a ceasefire agreement and freedom for the hostages who were taken during the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
Hamas is already blaming Israel for any failure. The terror group released a statement Sunday night saying, “The new proposal responds to Netanyahu’s conditions, especially with regards to his refusal to stop the war and fully withdraw from Gaza. We hold Netanyahu fully responsible for blocking an agreement and fully responsible for the lives of his prisoners.”
The President of Israel Isaac Herzog, however, put the blame for the failure to reach a deal for the release of the hostages squarely on the shoulder of Hamas.
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“We are surrounded by terror from four corners of the earth, and we are fighting back as a resilient and strong nation, and this also is reflected in the attitude of Hamas in the negotiations for the release of our hostages,” said Herzog. “Because one has to remember the refusal, the adamant refusal, and I’ve been following your statements on this for months. At the end, at the bottom line of it, people have to understand it starts with a refusal of Hamas to move forward.”
The comments came when President Herzog met with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv Monday morning.
For his part, Secretary Blinken called the current round of negotiations a, “decisive moment” and “probably the best,” but maybe also the “last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.”
Blinken went on to say that it is, “also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process. So we’re looking to make sure that there is no escalation [in the fighting], that there are no provocations, that there are no actions that in any way could move us away from getting this deal over the line, or for that matter, escalating the conflict to other places and to greater intensity.”
“I know that this is a fraught moment in Israel,” he said, adding, however, “It is time for everyone to get to yes and to not look for any excuses to say no.”
For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unsurprisingly rejected any attempt to place blame for the failure to release the hostages on himself or his government.
“We are holding very complex negotiations in which the other side is a murderous terrorist organization that is unbridled and obstinate,” Netanyahu said, referring to Hamas.
“Alongside the major efforts we are making to return our hostages, we stand on the principles that we have determined, which are vital for the security of Israel,” he added.
