PM holds a meeting for hostage talks
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a situational assessment of the hostages in Gaza together with his hostage negotiation team and his high -ranking defense officers on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister “instructed the continuation of the measures to be released [the] Senesting, ”said Prime Minister’s office in an explanation of giving without further details.
The Hebrew media reported that the consultation was held by phone, and despite an escalating feud between him and the government, which was right for the release of the spy chief last month, although his discharge was currently being put on hold due to a temporary order from the High Court of Justice.
In the meantime, a high -ranking officer of Hamas said that the terrorist group had prepared its reaction to an Israeli proposal for an ceasefire and Geisel publication contract, while he repeated his attitude against an agreement that did not end the war started on October 7, 2023.
“The reaction of the movement is still in preparation, and we confirm that there is no room for partly deal,” said Mahmoud Mardawi and insisted that Hamas’ weapons are not under negotiations.
Get the times of the daily edition of Israel
By e -mail and never miss our top stories
By registering, they agree with the conditions
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that the ongoing campaign in the Gaza Strip is aiming to further increase the pressure on Hamas in order to agree to the terrorist group to a hostage deal, and at the same time prepare the reason for a potential greater offensive, although such an operation has not yet started.
The current operation is slowly carried out to ensure the safety of the troops and to guarantee that the hostage talks can continue, according to the Israeli defense forces.
The military has not set a deadline if the big offensive started and it would be decided by elected leaders.
IDF troops work in the Gaza Strip on a handout photo that was published on April 16, 2025 (Israeli defense forces)
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip find 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 terrorists guided by Hamas on October 7, 2023. They included the corpses of at least 35 confirmed by the IDF.
The Hamas published 30 hostages during a ceasefire between January and March and the corpses of eight murdered Israeli prisoners. The terrorist group freed 105 civilians during a one -week ceasefire at the end of November 2023, and previously four hostages were released in the early weeks of the war. In return, Israel freed around 2,000 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners and Gazan terrorist suspects who were arrested during the war.
Eight hostages were saved by lively troops from captivity, and the bodies of 41 were also recovered, including three incorrectly killed by the Israeli military when they tried to escape their kidnappers, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier who was killed in 2014 is still held by Hamas and is one of the 59 hostages.
Agencies and times of Israeli staff contributed to this report.
It’s not (only) about you.
The support of the times of Israel is not a transaction for an online service, such as subscribing to Netflix. The toi community is for people like you who take care of it A common asset: Make sure that a balanced, responsible report on Israel is available to millions free of charge around the world.
Sure, we remove all ads from your page and will unlock access to some excellent community content. But their support gives them something deeper than that: the pride of accession Something that is really important.
Do you join the Times of Israel Community, which has already joined our community? Register so as not to see that anymore
You are a committed reader
That is why we have started the times of Israel – to offer demanding readers on how to offer reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have an inquiry. In contrast to other news agencies, we have not set up Paywall. Since the journalism we do is expensive, we invite readers, for which the times of Israel have become important to support our work by joining The times of the Israel community.
You can support our quality journalism for only 6 US dollars per month and at the same time enjoy the times of Israel Ad-freeas well as access Exclusive content Only available for times of the Israel community.
Thank you very much,
David Horovitz, founding editor of the times of Israel
Do you join our community with our community, already a member? Register so as not to see that anymore
