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hostages
Trump Tells Israel to 'Immediately Stop' Bombing Gaza After Hamas Agrees to Hostage Release
Israel reportedly responded to Trump's call by launching fresh strikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis.
Oct 03, 2025
US President Donald Trump on Friday said that Israel must "immediately" stop bombing the Gaza Strip after Hamas conditionally agreed to release the remaining Israeli and other hostages it has held since October 2023.
"Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly!" Trump said on his Truth Social network. "Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out. This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East."
Hamas' statement, which Trump also posted on Truth Social, said the Gaza-based resistance group would hand over all hostages alive or dead, as long as "the field conditions for the exchange are met," and that it "affirms its readiness to immediately enter into negotiations through the mediators to discuss the details of this agreement."
"The movement also renews its agreement to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats), based on Palestinian national consensus and Arab and Islamic support," Hamas added.
"The other issues mentioned in President Trump’s proposal regarding the future of the Gaza Strip and the inherent rights of the Palestinian people are linked to a comprehensive national position and based on relevant international laws and resolutions," the group said. "They are to be discussed within a comprehensive Palestinian national framework. Hamas will be part of it and will contribute to it with full responsibility."
Hamas was referring to the 20-point plan proposed earlier this week by Trump, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly backed, even as the fugitive from the International Criminal Court reportedly seeks ways to alter its conditions and slow its implementation.
Under part of the plan, Hamas would release all 20 living and 28 dead hostages in exchange for 250 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel for murdering Israelis and 1,700 others detained by Israel in Gaza since October 2023.
It remains to be seen whether Netanyahu—who has infamously boasted of his ability to "very easily" manipulate the US government—will heed Trump's call to stop bombing Gaza, where 729 days of near-relentless Israeli assault and siege have left more than 244,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and around 2 million Gazans forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.
Gaza media outlets reported fresh Israeli strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis.
🇮🇱💥🇵🇸 Moments after Trump urged Israel to stop bombing Gaza, Israel launched new strikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis.
[image or embed]
— Al Quds News Network (@alqudsnewsnet.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Some of Israel's most intense bombing of Gaza has occurred when ceasefire deals have seemed imminent; critics including relatives of the hostages have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the genocidal war in order to forestall a reckoning in his criminal corruption trial.
Thousands of Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been killed or wounded during Israel's effort to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse Gaza. Many other IDF soldiers and veterans are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues as a result of their participation in what former United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths called the "worst crime of the 21st century."
Earlier Friday, Trump threatened to unleash "HELL, like no one has ever seen before" if Hamas did not assent to the deal by Sunday evening.
"The priority is to stop the war and massacres, and from this perspective, we responded positively to the Trump plan," Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera.
However Abu Marzouk said that a key point of the Trump plan requiring Hamas to disarm would be discussed at a later date, and that "handing over prisoners and bodies within 72 hours is theoretical and unrealistic under the current circumstances."
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Palestinian Rights Advocates Condemn Boulder Attack on Vigil for Hostages
"I don't want to see a single person saying this was warranted by the carnage in Gaza, that this was for Palestinians," said congressional candidate Kat Abuhazaleh. "I am Palestinian and I do not want senseless acts of terror committed in my name."
Jun 02, 2025
Two Palestinian American politicians were among those who condemned Sunday's attack on people attending a vigil in Boulder, Colorado for Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas—with Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman saying she was "appalled that anyone would do this in our name."
"Committing violence makes everyone less safe and makes peace impossible," said Romman. "Those who do must be held accountable. Praying for the victims and their loved ones."
Her comments came after a suspect identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly threw a "makeshift flamethrower" using two bottles into a crowd of people who were taking part in a "Run for Their Lives" event in honor of people who were kidnapped by Hamas in October 2023.
At least two people were flown to a burn unit in Denver for serious injuries; eight people in all were hurt in the attack.
Mark D. Michalek, a special agent in the FBI's Denver field office, said Soliman yelled, "Free Palestine" during the attack, echoing the suspect in the killing of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington, D.C. last month. There was no indication that Soliman was linked to any particular group, Michalek said.
Soliman was taken into custody on Sunday.
Romman condemned the "cruelty and dehumanization" that appear to have led to attacks on individuals by suspects who have been motivated by anger at the Israeli government, which began bombarding Gaza in retaliation for Hamas' attack in 2023.
Israeli forces have killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since October 2023, waging attacks on schools, shelters, and hospitals while claiming to target Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has also imposed a total blockade on Gaza since March—pushing the population towards famine—and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians who were attempting to retrieve food at a distribution center set up by an Israel- and U.S.-backed company.
"Enough with the cruelty and dehumanization," said Romman. "Equating the Jewish community with the Israeli government fuels antisemitism further enabling extremism, conspiracy theories, and violence."
Critics have warned that the Israeli government has consistently conflated Judaism with Zionism and its actions in Gaza. In recent days officials have accused media outlets and critics of "blood libel"—a reference to ancient false allegations of ritual murder by Jewish people—for reporting on and condemning Israel's starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the IDF's attacks.
Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of the Jewish-led Palestinian rights group IfNotNow, said that while the "horrific" attack in Boulder was "a random act by an individual" and was "not representative of any movement," the killing of Palestinians in Gaza is the "result of official policy by the Israeli government."
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate for the U.S. House in Illinois' 9th District, warned that "senseless, antisemitic attacks do not help Palestinians, Jews, or Israelis."
"I don't want to see a single person saying this was warranted by the carnage in Gaza, that this was for Palestinians. I am Palestinian and I do not want senseless acts of terror committed in my name... Equating Jewish people with Israel's far-right government inevitably leads to antisemitism. It leads to innocent people getting hurt, more Jewish organizations being targeted, and Netanyahu preying on fear."
"My heart breaks every single day when I see what is happening in Gaza," she added. "I feel helpless. I know many of you do too. But when people enact violence in our name, it makes everyone less safe and it makes peace less likely."
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Gaza Cease-Fire Takes Effect After Deadly Three-Hour Delay
Israeli forces killed at least 19 Palestinians during the delay, on top of nearly 47,000 others slaughtered since October 2023.
Jan 19, 2025
Israeli forces killed at least 19 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning during a three-hour delay in implementing a cease-fire and hostage-release deal that Israel's Cabinet finally approved the previous day.
After over 15 months of a U.S.-backed military assault for which Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strikes on Gaza were set to stop at 8:30 am local time, due to a three-phase agreement negotiated by Egypt, Qatar, and the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administrations.
They did not, with deadly results. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense, said Sunday that at least 19 people were killed and over 36 were injured from 8:30 am to 11:30 am. That's on top of the tens of thousands of people the Israeli assault and restrictions on humanitarian aid have killed since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
As of midnight Saturday, the Gaza Ministry of Health put the official death toll in the besieged Palestinian enclave at 46,913, with another 110,750 people injured and over 10,000 others missing in the rubble of former homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques, though experts warn the number of deaths is likely far higher.
At 9:17 am on Sunday, the IDF said that it was "continuing to operate and strike terrorist targets in Gaza," adding: "A short while ago, IDF artillery and aircraft struck a number of terrorist targets in northern and central Gaza. The IDF remains ready in offense and defense and will not allow any harm to the citizens of Israel."
Muhammad Shehada, a Gazan writer, called the delay a "last-minute trick" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and explained on social media that it was "under the pretext that Hamas hasn't submitted the list of three captives it'll release today."
As Shehada detailed:
Israel also reneged on the arrangement needed for Hamas to be able to submit such list; suspending surveillance drones and bombardment in the hours preceding the cease-fire so that it becomes logistically possible for Hamas' members on the ground and abroad to contact each other and figure out which hostages are alive and where without compromising their whereabouts and risking being bombed or raided by the IDF.
Hamas was forced to submit the list under fire and spy drones, which meant Israel exploited this to try to locate and snatch some captives last minute. Israel now succeeded in reaching the body of the soldier Oron Shaul, whom Hamas had been holding captive since 2014.
Ultimately, Hamas submitted the list and the pause in fighting took effect—at least for now—enabling displaced Palestinians to start returning to what is left of their communities and the process of releasing captives to begin with three Israelis and 90 Palestinians. During the deal's first 42-day phase, there are plans to free 33 Israelis taken hostage by Palestinian militants, 737 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and 1,167 Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in Gaza.
The three Israeli hostages—Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher—were transfered to the International Committee of the Red Cross at a square in central Gaza City. The IDF confirmed that the Red Cross was bringing the women to Israeli troops.
The Associated Press on Sunday obtained from Hamas a list of the first 90 Palestinian prisoners set to be freed. They included 15-year-old Mahmoud Aliowat; 53-year-old Dalal Khaseeb, the sister of former Hamas second-in-command Saleh Arouri; 62-year-old Khalida Jarrar, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader; and 68-year-old Abla Abdelrasoul, the wife of detained PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat.
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'Unhinged' Trump Vows 'There Will Be All Hell to Pay' If Hostages Not Released
"Someone tell Trump that Israel already unleashed hell on Gaza, and hostages were not released."
Dec 02, 2024
In an early signal of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's foreign policy plans for when he returns to office next month, the Republican said Monday "there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East" if Hamas does not release hostages taken from Israel, the occupying military force in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Trump demanded hostages seized during the October 7 attack of last year be released or his promised retribution would follow. Nearly 45,000 Palestinians have already been killed—mostly civilian men, women, and children—since Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Gaza in the wake of the Hamas-led operation.
Of the 251 people taken captive last year, 63 are believed to be still alive in Gaza, according to The Washington Post's tracker, which was updated last week. So far, 117 others have been freed or rescued and 71 have been confirmed killed.
After dining with Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel's prime minister, at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida Sunday night, the U.S. president-elect made his threat about the hostages on his Truth Social platform Monday afternoon.
"Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East," Trump wrote. "But it's all talk, and no action! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity."
"Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America," Trump added. "RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!"
Stephen Pollard, editor-at-large The Jewish Chronicle, responded that "this is the message the president of the USA should have sent on October 8, 2023."
Noting Pollard's comments, Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at the U.K.-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, said: "Genuinely interested to know what Stephen thinks the U.S. could have supported Israel to do in Gaza beyond what it currently has. Nukes?"
"This statement is unhinged—'there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East,'" Talbot added.
Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in the School of Security Studies at King's College London, said, "Someone tell Trump that Israel already unleashed hell on Gaza, and hostages were not released."
Drop Site News highlighted that "Trump's statement—which follows a video released over the weekend by Hamas' armed wing featuring U.S.-Israeli captive Edan Alexander and explicitly addressing Trump—does not acknowledge that Netanyahu has repeatedly sabotaged cease-fire deals that could have freed Israeli hostages. It also appears timed to position himself to claim credit for any progress in cease-fire talks, as negotiations between Hamas and Egyptian mediators are already underway."
As the American Jewish outlet Forward reported Monday:
The White House is attempting a final push to get... a deal done. President Joe Biden said last week that the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon had created an opportunity to reignite stalled negotiations for a similar deal in Gaza. "We will use every day we have in office to try to generate as much progress towards that end as possible," Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said Sunday morning on ABC's "This Week."
Given the failed efforts in the past, the families of the American hostages are hoping Trump could leverage his popularity in Israel and his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take immediate action during the transition period. "Trump must not wait until he is inaugurated to help reach a deal that secures the freedom for Edan, six other Americans, and the rest of the hostages," Adi and Yael Alexander, the parents of Edan, said on Saturday.
Despite an abundance of evidence showing how Israel is using U.S. weapons to slaughter civilians in Gaza and severely restricting the flow of humanitarian aid while claiming to target Hamas, Biden and Congress have refused to cut off arms to Netanyahu's government. In fact, just hours after the cease-fire between the Israeli government and Hezbollah took effect—a deal that Israel has since violated approximately 100 times—the Financial Times reported last week that "Biden has provisionally approved a $680 million weapons sale to Israel."
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Israeli Rights Group Leader Tells UN It's Clear Netanyahu 'Does Not Want' a Hostage Deal
Israel's far-right government is "cynically exploiting our collective trauma" to "violently advance its project of cementing Israel's control" over Palestinian land, said B'Tselem CEO Yuli Novak.
Sep 05, 2024
The head of a leading Israeli human rights organization told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that Israel's far-right government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, obviously "does not want" to reach a hostage-release and cease-fire agreement with Hamas.
Yuli Novak, the CEO of B'Tselem, said in an address to the U.N. body that the Netanyahu government is "cynically exploiting our collective trauma" in the wake of the October 7 Hamas-led attack to "violently advance its project of cementing Israel's control" over Palestinian land.
"To do that, it is waging war on the entire Palestinian people, committing war crimes almost daily," said Novak. "In Gaza, this has taken the form of expulsion, starvation, killing, and destruction on an unprecedented scale."
Watch Novak's full speech:
Listen to the full speech of our executive director, Yuli Novak, yesterday at the UNSC.
"During this week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets. They feel angry, desperate and betrayed by their government. They have understood, perhaps for the first time,… pic.twitter.com/aMRf9rTOD9
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) September 5, 2024
Novak's remarks came days after Israelis poured into the streets en masse over the weekend following their government's announcement that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, heightening outrage over Netanyahu's obstruction of cease-fire talks.
In a speech on Monday, Netanyahu doubled down on his new hardline demands that have dampened hopes of a deal to end Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza and free the more than 60 living hostages still in captivity in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Hamas has rejected the prime minister's demand that any deal include indefinite Israeli military control of the Philadelphi Corridor—a narrow strip of land along Gaza's border with Egypt—leaving cease-fire talks at a standstill as the war on Gaza nears the 11-month mark.
Gershon Baskin, a longtime Israeli hostage negotiator who has engaged in back-channel talks with Hamas since the October 7 attack, told Democracy Now! on Wednesday that the Philadelphi Corridor demand "is a made-up issue by Netanyahu to create... a new excuse for Israel to remain in Gaza."
"It's very clear that Netanyahu doesn't want to end the war," Baskin said.
In a
social media post earlier this week, Baskin accused Netanyahu of "sacrificing the hostages on an altar of his own personal political survival."
Israeli activist @gershonbaskin has served as a backchannel negotiator with Hamas for many years and secured a historic 2011 prisoner exchange. He says the group has agreed to a ceasefire deal that would release all the Israeli hostages currently held in Gaza, but that Prime… pic.twitter.com/Q2sBtzVz3k
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) September 4, 2024
The view that Netanyahu is deliberately sabotaging hostage-release talks is hardly fringe: As
Jacobin's Branko Marcetic observed Wednesday, that assessment has become commonplace across Israeli society, including inside Netanyahu's government.
Marcetic cited recent reports from dozens of mainstream Israeli and U.S. media outlets casting Netanyahu—who faces corruption charges in his country—as the primary obstacle to a cease-fire agreement.
One unnamed Israeli official, identified as a senior member of the country's government,
told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz over the weekend that the blood of hostages "is on [Netanyahu's] hands."
"He knew the hostages are living on borrowed time, that the sand in their hourglass was running out," said the senior official, referring to the six hostages who, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health, were shot at close range sometime around last Thursday.
"He knew there were orders to kill them if there'd be rescue attempts. He understood the significance of his orders and acted in cold blood and cruelly," the Israeli official continued. "They all knew he is corrupted, a narcissist, a coward, but his lack of humanity was fully revealed in all its ugliness in recent months."
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Israeli General Strike Protests Netanyahu's 'Cabinet of Death'
"The Israeli government places no value on human life—whether of its Gazan subjects or of its own citizens," said the Israeli group B'Tselem.
Sep 02, 2024
Update:
The chairman of Histadrut, Israel's largest trade union, instructed workers to return to their jobs following an order by an Israeli court to end the general strike on Monday afternoon.
Earlier:
Workers across Israel walked off the job and took to the streets on Monday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to agree to a cease-fire and hostage-release deal after Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six people who were held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Teachers, local government employees, transit workers, and others took part in the strike, which halted departures from Israel's largest airport, shut down universities and shopping malls, and disrupted the flow of traffic as outraged Israelis blocked roads.
The strike was called by Histadrut, Israel's largest trade union. Arnon Bar-David, the union's chairman, said ahead of the action that "this is not a matter of right or left; it is a matter of life and death."
"All the heads of the security establishment support the deal, and it is the government's responsibility to bring our hostages home," he continued. "It is inconceivable that our children will not return because of narrow considerations and interests."
Yair Lapid, Israel's opposition leader, expressed support for the strike, saying that "Netanyahu and the cabinet of death decided not to save" the six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Rafah. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that Hamas fighters killed the hostages, including Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Hamas said in a statement that "we hold the criminal terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu and the biased American administration responsible for the failure of the negotiations to stop the aggression against our people and to release the prisoners in an exchange."
"We also hold him fully responsible for the lives of the prisoners who were killed by his army's bullets," Hamas added.
The IDF's announcement Sunday intensified the fury that hostages' families and much of Israeli society have directed at Netanyahu, who has repeatedly sabotaged cease-fire talks with hardline demands in recent weeks. Israeli officials believe around 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, including roughly 35 who are believed to be dead.
At least some of the hostages have been killed by Israeli forces. In April, Hamas released a brief video in which Goldberg-Polin appealed to the Netanyahu government for a cease-fire agreement and said at least 70 hostages had been killed in IDF attacks.
Thousands of Israelis took to the streets lashing out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after six hostages were found dead in the Gaza strip.
Read how the protests and a labor strike are mounting pressure for a cease-fire https://t.co/ffWWk2cmwC pic.twitter.com/uSzeNGam1v
— Bloomberg (@business) September 2, 2024
B'Tselem, an Israeli advocacy organization, said in a statement Sunday that "the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza this morning could have been saved if the Israeli government had heeded the pleas of their families and the Israeli public to reach a cease-fire and an exchange deal."
"The Israeli government places no value on human life—whether of its Gazan subjects or of its own citizens," the group added.
Labor unions in the United States—Israel's main ally and weapons supplier—expressed solidarity with Israeli workers who walked off the job Monday, with American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten applauding "this action to halt Israel's economy to send a message to the Netanyahu government to end this war."
"We are devastated by the murder of the six innocent hostages by Hamas, young people, most of whom were at the Nova dance festival," said Weingarten. "But it is unconscionable that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has refused to seal a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would bring the hostages home and end the humanitarian crisis of Gaza. We have called for an end to this war since January. In Netanyahu's obstinance, he has refused to listen, even to his own military and security experts."
The strike kicked off amid reports that the U.S. "has been talking to Egypt and Qatar about the contours of a final 'take it or leave it' deal that it plans to present to the parties in the coming weeks," according to The Washington Post.
"Biden officials said it was not immediately clear whether the discovery of the six hostages would make it more or less likely that Israel and Hamas could come to an agreement in the coming weeks," the Post added.
Drop Site's Jeremy Scahill noted Sunday that "rather than insisting on upholding what [U.S. President Joe] Biden said was Israel's own proposal in May, the U.S. has appeased Netanyahu's efforts to allow an indefinite presence of Israeli forces in Gaza and an open-ended campaign of military attacks."
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Hostage Families in Tel Aviv: 'Starting Tomorrow, the Country Will Tremble'
'Starting tomorrow, the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. The country will grind to a halt. The abandonment is over.'
Aug 31, 2024
Tens of thousands rallied across Israel on Saturday night, demanding a hostage deal and against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of demonstrators, including relatives of those held hostage in Gaza, gathered at the Hostages Square for a rally demanding their loved ones’ return and pled with the prime minister and negotiating team to reach an agreement before time runs out. Roving groups of right-wing activists cursed and spat on the demonstrators.
Along with the mass demonstration in Tel Aviv, large protests were held in cities nationwide, drawing thousands of demonstrators.
Later Saturday night, the Israeli Defense Force announced it had located several bodies in the Gaza Strip, which might be the remains of Israeli hostages. “At this stage, the forces are still operating in the area and carrying out a process to extract and identify the bodies, which will last several hours,” the military says.
After the IDF says it has found bodies in Gaza that possibly are of hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement calling on the public to prepare to hold sweeping protests tomorrow.
“Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. It is now a fact. Starting tomorrow, the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. The country will grind to a halt. The abandonment is over.”
The Forum says it will provide further details tomorrow morning.
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'Crime Minister!': Israeli Families of Hostages March Against Netanyahu
"This is our final chance to secure a deal that will save lives," said one family member. "Netanyahu continues to trade on the lives of hostages in exchange for maintaining his seat of power."
Aug 10, 2024
Thousands marched in the streets of Israeli cities on Saturday to demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu end his sabotage of negotiations that would see an end to the fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas for over nine months.
As human rights defenders and world leaders condemned the Israeli government throughout the day over the latest "heinous" massacre of innocent civilians in Gaza—this time at another school-turned-shelter in Gaza where an estimate 100 people or more were killed by IDF missiles overnight—family members of hostages were among those who accused Netanyahu of keeping the carnage going in order to maintain power.
In Tel Aviv, demonstrators held up signs that read: "Crime Minister!"; "Bring Them Home!"; and "Bibi, Stop Wasting Time!"
Einav Zangauker, identified by Haaretz as the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, accused Netanyahu of using victims like her son "as pawns to preserve his power."
With the United States, Qatar, and Egypt trying to hold a new round of talks next week, Zangauker said that Israel has "reached a crucial moment" that Netanyahu must not be allowed to sabotage.
"This is our final chance to secure a deal that will save lives," she said. "Netanyahu continues to trade on the lives of hostages in exchange for maintaining his seat of power."
While the heads of Arab nations have told President Joe Biden he must put more of a squeeze on Netanyahu in order to compel him towards a deal, Israel's own defense chiefs have indicated Netanyahu does not want any such deal.
The assassination of Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month by Israel was one clear signal that negotiations—for which Haniyeh was a key player—is not how the Israelis under Netanyahu want to proceed.
Meanwhile, news on Friday that the Biden administration was releasing another $3.5 billion in military aid and weapons sales for Israel indicated that the U.S. president is not applying any pressure on the prime minister ahead of next week's talks.
Ghadir Hani, an anti-war leader in the Standing Together and Women Wage Peace organizations, spoke at a demonstration in the town of Caesarea on Saturday where she said that in addition to the safe return of Israeli hostages, a deal is "also necessary for the sake of the thousands of innocents in Gaza, whose agonized deaths breaks the heart of everyone in whom humanity remains."
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Ben-Gvir Sets Sights on Israeli War Cabinet After Gantz Quits
The National Unity leader delayed his departure due to an Israeli military operation that rescued four hostages but killed at least 274 people in Gaza and wounded 698 others.
Jun 09, 2024
As Benny Gantz of Israel's National Unity party ditched the country's emergency government and called for elections on Sunday—after briefly delaying his exit due to a deadly hostage rescue operation in the Gaza Strip—far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir swiftly sought more power.
Following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, an emergency government was formed and Gantz—a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of general staff—joined the Israeli War Cabinet, whose other members are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, both Likud party members.
There are also three observers on the Israeli War Cabinet, including Gadi Eisenkot, another ex-military chief who co-founded National Unity with Gantz and also left the panel on Sunday. Additionally, IDF Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, commander of the Gaza Division, announced his resignation as the Israeli assault on the besieged enclave continued.
In a social media post, Ben-Gvir shared his letter to Netanhayu demanding a seat on the Israeli War Cabinet. The Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party leader—known for making statements about Palestinians denounced globally as genocidal—said that "the time has come to make brave decisions, achieve real deterrence, and bring security to the residents of the south, the north, and Israel as a whole."
The letter came after Ben-Gvir made similar remarks earlier Sunday signaling his quest for more influence at a conference in Tel Aviv. The Times of Israel reported that he said, "I will demand that [the electoral strength I hold] be given expression and not as it has been until now," and suggested that if decision-makers had listened to him, "maybe October 7 would have looked different."
As the newspaper detailed:
Ben-Gvir says that his vision is to "conquer Gaza and [go to] war with Hezbollah," adding that if Netanyahu agrees to a "reckless" hostage deal, "I'm not there."
He also offers Gantz a good riddance, welcoming his impending resignation.
"We agreed that he would enter the government, and we thought he came to create unity, but in reality he came to create chaos and promote his political agenda," Ben-Gvir says, according to Hebrew media. "I think their departure is important, and I need to return to being a leading force like I was before Gantz entered the government."
National Unity has eight members, including Gantz and Eisenkot, in the Knesset, Israel's 120-seat parliament. For now, Netanyahu's right-wing coalition retains a 64-seat majority: 32 Likud members; 11 Shas members; seven United Torah Judaism members; seven Religious Zionism members, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich; six Jewish Power members; and one Noam member.
While Gantz is often described as a "centrist" that some in the U.S. government hope will eventually be Israel's prime minister, critics on Sunday highlighted his long military career and how he has talked about it, including in political campaign messaging.
"Gantz is a literal representation of Israel’s military since the 1970s—participating either as a soldier or leader in Israel's sieges of Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza," said U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights policy manager Mohammed Khader. "He's no better than Netanyahu, regardless of his support and award from the U.S."
Thousands of people descended on the White House in Washington, D.C. on Saturday to protest U.S. weapons and diplomatic support for the war, which as of Sunday has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded another 84,494, according to officials in the Hamas-governed enclave.
Officials said those tallies include at least 274 people—among them, 64 children and teenagers, 57 women, and 37 seniors—killed and 698 others wounded Saturday in an Israeli raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp to rescue four hostages taken from Israel in October. Hamas claimed the operation killed three other hostages including a U.S. citizen.
Responding to the raid in a statement Sunday, Democracy for the Arab World Now Sarah executive director Leah Whitson said that "Israeli officials should be held responsible for this grotesque, botched Israeli operation—massacring not only 274 Palestinians, mostly women and children, but reportedly also killing three hostages, including a U.S. citizen—because it has violated the most basic laws of war requiring distinction and proportionality."
"By providing intelligence and logistics support for this operation, the Biden administration has now made the U.S. a party to this conflict and placed U.S. forces at risk for attack as legitimate military targets," Whitson continued, citing a Washington Post report.
"While it's a relief that a few hostages were released, this entire stunt was unnecessary given the ongoing cease-fire negotiations that include the release of all civilian hostages," she added. "Israel didn't need to carry out this operation; a diplomatic solution was already on the table, which would have secured the safe release of all hostages without further bloodshed."
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Thousands Protest Gaza Genocide in 'Red Line' White House Rally
"We as the people are drawing the red line today to say enough is enough," said a protester from the Palestinian Youth Movement. "It's time for an arms embargo, and it's time to end this."
Jun 09, 2024
As the Israel Defense Forces on Saturday killed over 200 more Palestinians in the Gaza Strip while rescuing four hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, thousands of anti-war protesters descended on the White House in Washington, D.C.
The rally marked not only eight months of the war but also called out U.S. President Joe Biden for his seemingly empty threat to cut off American arms and diplomatic support for the Israeli military campaign, which has killed more than 36,800 people and wounded over 83,600 in Hamas-governed Gaza since October.
Biden threatened to end U.S. support for Israel's war—which has led to a genocide case before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—if the IDF attacked Rafah, calling it a "red line."
However, when Israeli forces began assaulting the southern Gaza city to which over a million Palestinians had fled and seized the border crossing with Egypt, further limiting the flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid, the White House claimed the actions didn't amount to crossing what critics called "the Biden administration's ever-shifting red lines."
Protesters in D.C. on Saturday held signs that said, "Genocide is our red line" and "Israel bombs, your taxes pay," The Washington Post reported. According to the newspaper:
Aiya, a George Washington University student and a leader of GW Students for Justice in Palestine, said the student activism has "really lit a fire under the Free Palestine movement, because it has pushed the bounds of what we here in the United States and the diaspora are willing to sacrifice." Before police shut it down last month, hundreds of GWU students set up a pro-Palestinian encampment—one of numerous throughout the country.
Aiya, who did not share a last name for privacy reasons, said students wanted Gazans to know they are "not alone."
"We say at campus protests, 'We will not rest till you divest,' and we mean that. We have been out here tirelessly," Aiya said. "I mean, how could we tire when we see the people of Gaza endure through literally hell on Earth?"
The protesters chanted, "From D.C. to Palestine, we are the red line," and held a red banner around the White House as a symbol of Biden's claims, which some referenced directly when detailing their reasons for joining the demonstration.
"The intention is to draw a red line where Biden won't draw one when it comes to Israel's genocide in Gaza, and say we as the people are drawing the red line today to say enough is enough," Nas Issa of the Palestinian Youth Movement told NBC News. "It's time for an arms embargo, and it's time to end this."
Agence France-Presse also spoke with participants critical of the Biden administration for supporting the Israeli war effort as it mediates cease-fire negotiations alongside Egypt and Qatar.
"I no longer believe any of the words that Joe Biden says," explained Zaid Mahdawi, a 25-year-old protester from Virginia whose parents are Palestinian. "This 'red line' in his rhetoric is rubbish... It shows his hypocrisy and his cowardice."
Multiple protesters—including some who voted for Biden in 2020—told AFP and NBC that they won't cast ballots for the Democrat in November. None of them signaled support for former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, but some said they may vote for third-party or Independent candidates, who lack the support needed to beat the two major party contenders.
Polling and the "uncommitted" campaigns during state primaries have shown that Biden backing Israel's war is costing him votes. Bend the Arc: Jewish Action and the NAACP delivered similar warnings this week, with the former's CEO writing that "U.S. support for continued violence in Gaza is putting American safety and U.S. democracy in danger."
In response to the Saturday protest, Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said that the president "believes making your voice heard and participating in our democracy is fundamental to who we are as Americans."
"He shares the goal for an end to the violence and a just, lasting peace in the Middle East," Schuster added. "He's working tirelessly to that end."
While Biden was in France on Saturday for a state visit with French President Emmanuel Macron and the D-Day anniversary, a Secret Service spokesperson told The Hill that in anticipation of protests, "additional public safety measures including anti-scale fencing have been put in place near the White House complex."
Biden said in France that "I want to echo President Macron's comments welcoming the safe rescue of four hostages that were returned to their families in Israel. We won't stop working until all the hostages come home and a cease-fire is reached."
The White House put out a statement along the same lines—which, as the anti-war group CodePink highlighted, also did not recognize the hundreds of Palestinians killed and injured in the IDF operation at Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp.
Speaking at the D.C. rally, CodePink East Coast organizer Krys Cerisier said that "we stand side by side with struggles across the globe to tell everybody in the White House that we can see them. We can see them for what they are, and that is war criminals, war criminals who deserve to be held accountable for the countless genocides, the countless wars, and the countless crimes they have committed against Black and brown people across the globe."
"We say no to war. We say no to bombs. We say no to mines, to planes, to tanks! We say no!" Cerisier declared. "We say yes to education! We say yes to food—to care for the community! But we say no to being led by people who only care about funding war."
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