Having received the news on Saturday night that six Israeli hostages’ bodies were recovered from Gaza, Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, apologised “for failing to bring them home safely”. For nearly a year, Israel has been gripped by the fates of those who were taken captive by Hamas during a murderous assault against mostly civilian targets in Israel on October 7. Ninety-seven are thought to remain in Gaza.
The Hostage Families Forum has accused Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of “abandoning” their loved ones by prioritising an unwinnable war in Gaza over the diplomacy needed to reach a ceasefire and see more hostages released. Mr Netanyahu says his government’s invasion of Gaza, nearing the end of its eleventh month, aims to free the hostages through a combination of rescue operations and military pressure on Hamas.
Of the 251 Israelis and foreign citizens kidnapped on October 7, 117 have been returned alive. Only eight of them were rescued by the Israeli military; 105 were released through a diplomatically brokered prisoner exchange and four were released by Hamas on humanitarian grounds. Mr Netanyahu’s “military pressure” strategy has not forced the release of a single hostage, though it has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and devastated the lives of close to two million Gazans.
Sunday marked the start of a three-day pause in Israeli military operations in Gaza, during which Israel has agreed to allow the UN to run a polio vaccination drive after initially rejecting it. The effort, funded in part by the UAE, will see 640,000 children under the age of 10 vaccinated against the virus, which emerged in Gaza this year for the first time in a quarter of a century.
The vaccination campaign is a positive development in a very dire situation, and would not have been necessary had Israel abided by its obligations under international humanitarian law during the war. It should also be used to bring renewed focus on the need for a ceasefire deal, but Israel has already undermined that opportunity by extending the conflict to the West Bank. Last week, the military launched an offensive in several West Bank towns, killing at least 20 Palestinians, including civilians, and raising fears of a second front being opened. The tension has been compounded by news in recent months of abuse of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli military prisons.
The increasingly fraught atmosphere in Israel extends to the government. A security cabinet meeting on Thursday night discussing the latest developments in ceasefire talks brokered by Qatar, the US and Egypt reportedly turned into a shouting match between Mr Netanyahu and his Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant. The point of contention was Mr Netanyahu’s plans for Israeli soldiers to continue occupying the Philadelphi Corridor, the boundary between Gaza and Egypt, despite Hamas and Egypt’s objections. Continued Israeli occupation in the corridor would not only violate previous agreements on how the Egypt-Gaza border is managed but also diminish the prospect of any long-term peace; a final settlement between Palestinians and Israelis requires less Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation – not more.
Mr Gallant suggested that offering some compromise on the issue would make a hostage deal more likely. Mr Netanyahu allegedly said holding Philadelphi was more important than that.
Perhaps the most striking element of the cabinet meeting was Mr Gallant’s warning that, one way or another, Mr Netanyahu would eventually be forced to give in to Hamas’s demands. Such a dire prediction from the country’s own Defence Minister speaks volumes about the prospect of Israel achieving any of its aims. In the meantime, the likelihood of more tragedies, like the deaths of Israeli hostages and many more innocent Palestinian civilians, only grows.
