Over the course of 10 months, relatives of Israeli captives held by Hamas have tirelessly campaigned for their release. Utilising local and global media platforms, staging protests, and pleading with the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, they’ve called for an arrangement which would ensure the safe return of their family members, even if it necessitated the cessation of the anti-Hamas conflict. Success has evaded them so far.
However, when reports circulated on Sunday that an additional six captives – part of the 240 taken hostage by Hamas in a brutal attack on Israel the past October, which saw 1,200 fatalities according to Israeli data – were found deceased in a Gaza tunnel, seemingly recently killed by their abductors near Israeli soldiers, a fresh surge of public outrage engulfed Israel.
Netanyahu found himself at the heart of much of the ire. Come Sunday evening, thousands of Israelis filled the streets of Tel Aviv, urging Netanyahu to show leniency and assent to a proposal which may lead to the captives’ release in return for a lasting truce and the liberation of innumerable Palestinian detainees.
The following Monday morning, thanks to a powerful trade syndicate supporting the pleas of the captives’ families, a nationwide strike paralysed a significant portion of the country. Departures from Ben Gurion international airport were halted, and various establishments including educational institutions, retail centres, and harbours were closed.
Yet this vast display of public grief and indignation also mirrored the discord within the nation — some of Netanyahu’s extreme-right accomplices, like finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, lashed out at the protestors and trade syndicate heads, accusing them of “fulfilling [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar’s dream”.
Several right-leaning cities and settlements opted out of participating in the strike. As the prospects of the existence of the remaining 101 captives in Hamas custody become increasingly bleak, the discord between the two factions intensifies. Israeli authorities have already assumed that at least 35 of them are no more.
Family members of the prisoners have become progressively more hopeless and frustrated with Netanyahu. “If we are unable to secure an unequivocal commitment from the Israeli government, it becomes clear that all the hostages could lose their lives under the custody of Hamas,” declared Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of the 35-year-old captive Sagui, abducted from a kibbutz on the 7th of October.
“Beyond domestic political interests and the retention of power, there’s no logical reason for Netanyahu’s refusal to accept the deal,” he added. Far-right ministers such as Smotrich have constantly threatened to dismantle Netanyahu’s coalition if he agrees to a deal contingent on a comprehensive ceasefire, calling for increased military force on Hamas to liberate the hostages. However, of the roughly 240 individuals kidnapped on October 7th, Israel’s military has only rescued eight and mistakenly killed three.
In contrast, a temporary ceasefire in November saw the release of 105 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners as a result of negotiations, at a time when humanitarian aid massively entered the besieged region. The deaths of hostages, both on Sunday and prior, have been attributed by Hamas to Israeli air attacks and Netanyahu’s stubbornness.
Hamas continues to stand by its central demand stipulating that a full hostage release – including captured Israeli soldiers – must be predicated on a complete ceasefire; it reiterated this demand on Sunday afternoon. However, the second negotiated prisoner-hostage swap has not been realised, even with the concerted efforts of the US, Egypt and Qatar in mid-August to persuade the conflicting sides to agree on a US-supported proposal.
The lack of progress has led to a blame game in public that has fragmented Israeli politics and frustrated mediators. Negotiations seem to have hit a roadblock as Hamas has asked for guarantees that a sustainable ceasefire will follow the hostage exchange, and that Israeli troops will fully retreat from Gaza. Conversely, Netanyahu has insisted on maintaining the Israeli military’s control over the Gaza-Egypt border.
“The postponement of the deal has resulted in the demise of [Sunday’s] and many other hostages,” stated the Hostage and Missing Families forum, an advocacy group. Their message to Netanyahu was clear: “Stop evading. Give the public a justification for this persistent neglect.”
The future of Netanyahu’s stance still hangs in the balance depending on whether the growing irritation will gain sufficient political momentum. A majority of the Israeli population favours a peace agreement with Hamas for the hostages’ release, as indicated in numerous surveys, despite the regular but disparate protests in Tel Aviv. As the numbers of protestors on the streets began to mount on Sunday, the national mood seemed to be changing. An increasingly vocal media and political opposition now demand a compromise from Netanyahu.
However, Netanyahu, who boasts the longest tenure as Premier in Israel’s history, has previously withstood even bigger and longer-lasting protests. Veteran pollster Dahlia Scheindlin, who had been tracking the protest movement closely, stated that while it was uncertain whether public opinion would sway Netanyahu, a national strike supported by influential politicians and social leaders could push the government to revisit its current policy.
Netanyahu dismisses claims that his requisites for the Egypt-Gaza border have delayed potential negotiations, maintaining that Hamas has consistently refused to engage in serious talks for months. He pointed out that Israel had agreed to a revised format of the US-backed agreement, which Hamas has formally rejected.
Netanyahu stated, “In recent days, Israel has made tireless efforts to negotiate with the interlocutor to arrive at an agreement. In stark contrast, Hamas has categorically dismissed all offers. Even more disturbingly, it executed six of our hostages during this period.”
However, a weekend leak to Israel’s Channel 12 news presented a different scenario, ultimately infuriating the families of the hostages. They had always been sceptical of Netanyahu’s delay tactics used to hold his coalition intact.
As per the reports from Channel 12, a heated argument between Netanyahu and his Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, took place during a cabinet meeting on Thursday. Gallant cautioned that Netanyahu’s persistence of having Israeli forces on the Egypt-Gaza border was jeopardizing the liberation talks for the hostages and voted against the decision.
Upon recovering the bodies, Gallant demanded, “The cabinet must immediately reconvene and overturn Thursday’s decision. It’s too late for the hostages who were ruthlessly killed.”
In the aftermath of the Hamas’s attack on October 7, local health officials have confirmed over 40,000 Palestinian casualties, the majority of whom are women and children. Concurrently, widespread areas of the Gaza Strip have been left in ruins by the Israeli military.
The conflict has swiftly escalated into a severe humanitarian emergency, characterised by rampant starvation, rampant disease proliferation and the forced migration of the majority of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants towards UN refuge points and expansive tent metropolises. – The Financial Times 2024.