Hostage negotiation negotiations are based on the principle of distributing hostages to all categories: children, women, elderly people, sick people, soldiers, women soldiers.
All proposed agreements, so far, provide for the gradual release of hostages based on their affiliation to one or the other of these categories.
The Tikva Forum, which brings together the families of hostages, has insisted from the start that these differences condemn some hostages to long stays in Hamas prisons.
It asks the government not to accept any agreement that does not include the release of all hostages at once.
To raise awareness of this message, the Tikva Forum released a chilling video:
Video: Tikva Forum
The question of the mandate of Israel’s negotiating team, particularly what concessions it can accept in negotiations, is a matter of contention in the War Cabinet. Netanyahu favors a hard line, Gantz and Eisenkot favor more flexibility.
Two former Chiefs of Staff today (Saturday) asked the Prime Minister for an interview on the subject which was refused. Netanyahu has convened the War Cabinet and then the Security Cabinet tomorrow evening during which the question of negotiations will be raised.
Faced with this situation, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, bypassing the Prime Minister, called an urgent debate on the subject this evening. He invited the IDF, Mossad, Shabak officers and negotiators involved in the hostage release discussions to the meeting.
Finance Minister and Security Cabinet member Betsalel Smotrich criticized the way the negotiations were conducted: “I opposed the departure of the delegation even before Paris and Qatar. And the facts show I was right. Hamas’s position is absurd and shows us that the supporters of the agreement within the war cabinet and the security services do not know where they are going and their attitude only strengthens Sinauer in his demands for the return of the hostages. It is time to change our thinking and learn from our mistakes. Netanyahu should order the delegation to remain in Israel and order the IDF to enter Rafah immediately to increase military pressure until Hamas is eliminated. Only in this way, with God’s help, will we win and bring back the hostages.
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