Israel's Netanyahu says deal could be near for hostages in Gaza
Send a link to a friend
[July 23, 2024]
By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
told families of hostages held in Gaza that a deal that would secure
their release could be near, his office said on Tuesday, as fighting
raged in the battered Palestinian enclave.
Israeli forces pressed on with a raid into Gaza's southern area of Khan
Younis after ordering civilians to evacuate some districts they said had
been used for renewed attacks by Palestinian militants.
Thousands of people were fleeing for safer areas as Israeli airstrikes
hit, U.N. officials said.
Netanyahu is currently in Washington and is expected to meet U.S.
President Joe Biden later this week after making an address to Congress.
Speaking in the U.S. capital on Monday to families of hostages, he said:
"The conditions (for a deal) are undoubtedly ripening. This is a good
sign."
Efforts to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas,
outlined by Biden in May and mediated by Egypt and Qatar, have gained
momentum over the past month.
"Unfortunately, it will not take place all at once; there will be
stages. However, I believe that we can advance the deal and leave us in
possession of the leverage to bring about the release of the others
(hostages not freed in first stage)," Netanyahu said.

Ruby Chen, the father of dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Itai Chen, a soldier
whose body is being held in Gaza, was one of the family members who met
with Netanyahu.
"He did say that conditions were ripening but I'm taking that with a
pinch of salt," Chen told Israeli Army Radio.
Chen said he hoped Biden, who on Sunday withdrew his bid for reelection
and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate in
November's U.S. election, would apply more pressure on Netanyahu to
secure the deal.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters there was nothing new
in Netanyahu's stance.
"Netanyahu is still stalling and he is sending delegations only to calm
down the anger of families of Israeli captives," he said.
An Israeli negotiation team was due on Thursday to resume talks that
would include hostages being released in return for Palestinian
prisoners held in Israeli jails. In a week-long truce in November, 105
hostages were freed in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The hostages were seized in the Hamas raid into southern Israel on Oct.
7 in which about 1,200 people were killed and around and 250 taken
captive, according to Israeli tallies.
Hamas and other militants are still holding 120 hostages, around a third
of whom have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.
[to top of second column]
|

Ruby Chen, father of deceased U.S.-Israeli hostage Itay Chen, whose
body is held by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza
Strip, sits on a park bench during an interview with Reuters in
Netanya, Israel, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Janis Laizans/ File Photo

The death toll among Palestinians in Israel's retaliatory offensive
since then has reached more than 39,000, according to Gaza health
authorities in the Hamas-run enclave. Hundreds of thousands of
people have been displaced and much of the enclave laid to waste by
airstrikes and artillery bombardments.
FEAR AND DISPLACEMENT
In Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli air raids hit the southern city of Khan
Younis as Israeli troops and Palestinian militants fought in its
shattered streets, forcing civilians to flee.
"Thousands of people on the move again, fleeing strikes & military
operations. The situation is impossible. The cycle of fear &
displacement has gone on too long. Everyone is exhausted," the
U.N.'s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on X.
The Israeli military said dozens of militants had been killed in
Khan Younis by its tanks and warplanes or in close-quarter combat.
Weapon caches and tunnels used by the militants had been destroyed,
it said.
Palestinian medics said one person was killed in an Israeli
airstrike in the area on Tuesday, after dozens were reported killed
by Israeli attacks there on Monday. Gaza's health ministry does not
distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Health officials
have said most those killed have been civilians.
Further north, in Gaza City, Israeli bombing killed 16 people,
medics said.
In Rafah, next to the border with Egypt where Israel has said it was
stamping out Hamas' last units, an Israeli airstrike killed two
Palestinians.
Hamas said its fighters were combating Israeli soldiers in Rafah.
Residents said tanks have operated in most of the city, but have yet
to gain full control of the northern and western areas.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Maayan Lubell in
Jerusalem, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |