Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has told family members of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza that there’s no chance of a deal to free their relatives.
“There’s stagnation, and I don’t see progress right now in this period, I’m very sorry to say,” Gallant said in a meeting with the hostage families on Monday, according to The Times of Israel.
On Wednesday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who has mediated the negotiations, said there have been no talks for the past three or four weeks.
“On the prospects of the negotiation … basically in the last three to four weeks, there is no conversation or engagement at all, and we are just moving in the same circle with the silence from all parties,” al-Thani said.
Gallant blamed the lack of a deal on Hamas, but Israeli officials and media outlets widely acknowledged during the last round of negotiations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was purposely sabotaging the chances of an agreement.
Haaretz reported on Wednesday that top members of Israel’s General Staff have no doubts that Netanyahu has decided to abandon the hostages. There are said to be 97 Israeli hostages in the tunnels of Gaza, but only about half are believed to be alive.
Gallant claimed that if there were an opportunity for a deal that would link Lebanon and Gaza, Israel would take it. But throughout the past year, Hezbollah has made clear it would end attacks on northern Israel if there were a ceasefire in Gaza, and Israeli officials never pursued the possibility.
Gallant told the hostage families that he thought Sinwar was watching the escalations in Lebanon and the tensions between Israel and Iran, hoping for a regional war. But Israeli escalations have led to the current situation in the region, and Netanyahu appears to be seeking a major war that would involve the US.
Gallant finished by saying:
"If your relatives had refused to be taken alive, none of us would be in this awkward situation."
That, is the most evil statement I have ever heard. The families of the hostages who remain should rip is eyeballs out of his head, then hang him on the nearest lamp post.
Of course there's no deal in sight: the LAST thing Netanyahu wants is for Israel's ongoing slaughter in Gaza to stop, and he's proven repeatedly that he doesn't give a S*** about the hostages.
Smotrich has declared that the "most moral" army will push into Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, declared that lands to belong to the Jews, given to them by G-d.
The madness has no end.
Odd and amusing that the Islamic countries bordering modern Israel AREN'T claiming that THEIR "last & final most accurate words from god" holy book says that Israel belongs to THEM…
Israel needs to get its a— in line, appropriately. End of story.
I would guess for families of the remaining hostages, those words were felt like a fart in a space suit.
The families have to get it by now that the Likud administration has never cared about the hostages.
That's 97 votes they're not getting next time, for sure ! CLEARLY not an Election Year in Israel.
"“On the prospects of the negotiation … basically in the last three to four weeks, there is no conversation or engagement at all, and we are just moving in the same circle with the SILENCE FROM ALL PARTIES (emphasis mine),” al-Thani said."
To quote comedian Patton Oswalt (but about the Apartheid State of Israel), "Oh, you're not even f**king TRYING."
Never was.
How is that not a HUGE SCANDAL ALL OVER THE NEWS!? …Oh sorry. You're correct. My bad. If GENOCIDE is not a HUGE SCANDAL ALL OVER THE NEWS, then this is definitely NO BIG DEAL.
You gotta love the man. Finkelstein pulls no punches (I don’t know why the link won’t go directly to the post
It’s third down)
https://x.com/mortazavi/status/1846816825251975396/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1846816825251975396¤tTweetUser=mortazavi
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