Hostage families pile pressure on Netanyahu after bodies discovered

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The recovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages killed in Gaza has intensified pressure on defiant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ease his hardline demands that are stalling a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his visit to the Middle East without securing any major breakthrough for stopping the war. He was on his ninth trip to the region since October 7 when Hamas launched an attack in Israel that killed about 1,200 people. More than 40,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war started, with at least 92,743 injured and thousands more missing under rubble, Ministry of Health figures indicate.

Hours before his departure, and as the talks in Doha were entering a crucial phase, Israeli forces entered Hamas tunnels in Khan Younis in the south of the Palestinian strip to recover the bodies of hostages Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell and Haim Perry, Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on X. At least 109 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza after Hamas captured 251 people from Israel on October 7.

“If the (Israeli army) assessment is correct that they were alive in March … it points up the fraught condition of these hostages,” Aaron David Miller, a former longtime Middle East analyst at the State Department, told The National.

Israeli politicians and families of the hostages have long accused the Prime Minister of prioritising his political career over reaching a ceasefire deal, arguing that ending the war would signal a failure by the army to eradicate Hamas. In this context, he insists that any agreement must allow Israel the freedom to resume military action at any time and maintain a presence in parts of the strip.

On Tuesday evening, protesters blocked traffic in Tel Aviv and held protests in Haifa after the announcement of the bodies' return was made, demanding a ceasefire.

Matty Dancyg, the son of Alex Dancyg, a Holocaust scholar who was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz, will bury his father on Sunday.

"It’s kind of a relief that we know the body is in Israel, and we’ll have a grave. But I’m more interested in life. When I knew he wasn’t alive anymore, my thoughts were mostly about the people that are still there. They should be saved and brought back alive - not in a plastic bag," he told The National.

His father, who was taken when he was 75, was declared dead in July, several months after Hamas claimed he and six others had been killed. A cousin, Itshak Elgarat, remains in Gaza. Mr Dancyg says Prime Minister Netanyahu is sacrificing civilians for his own political career to avoid taking responsibility for security failures that led to the October 7 attack.

"It’s not moral. It’s not human. I feel like I’m kidnapped in my country by this government."

While Hamas is responsible for the attack, Mr Dancyg now thinks of the missed opportunities to free his father. He said "Hamas is the main one responsible for October 7, but since then, the government of Israel has made every mistake they could... They’ve left people to die there."

A statement by The Hostages Families and Missing Forum welcomed the extraction of the bodies but it also urged the government to “do everything in its power” to finalise the long-delayed agreement to secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, saying that a negotiated deal was the only way to get them home.

“Israel has a moral and ethical obligation to return all the murdered for dignified burial and to bring all living hostages home for rehabilitation. The immediate return of the remaining 109 hostages can only be achieved through a negotiated deal. The Israeli government, with the assistance of mediators, must do everything in its power to finalise the deal currently on the table.”

The urgency of rescuing the remaining hostages while finalising a deal is increasing pressure on Mr Netanyahu, especially after Hamas rejected new proposals that incorporate some of the Prime Minister's demands into a previously agreed-upon deal.

“The US is attempting to delay negotiations in order to pressure the mediators into accepting Mr Netanyahu's new conditions as necessary,” a senior Hamas official told The National, adding the group “won't accept that”.

“The international community must put pressure on Mr Netanyahu, who took advantage of Hamas’s flexibility to make amendments to the agreement and change the conditions,” stressed the source.

For Mr Miller, and despite the pressure on Mr Netanyahu, it was unlikely that it would force him to sign a deal with Hamas. He said that the “hostage families cannot change the numbers in the Knesset”.

US President Joe Biden is also in a predicament in handling his last remaining days in office while putting pressure on Mr Netanyahu.

“The Biden administration, in my judgement, is locked into a true political dilemma now, because in the next 80 days, I cannot imagine how Biden would want to get into a major fight with Netanyahu,” said Mr Miller.

Mr Netanyahu's government has also come under fire for its handling of plans to commemorate the first anniversary of the Hamas attack, with the hostages forum and several kibbutz communities saying they will not attend government-organised memorials.

Kibbutz Yad Morderchai was the latest to announce its boycott, saying on Wednesday it “refused to take part in any political production”. The community will hold its memorial, which will be opened to other communities in southern Israel.

Former Defence Minister Benny Gantz, who resigned from the war cabinet in June, has called on the government to "just listen" and let affected communities lead plans for any memorial.

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