Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the ongoing hostage negotiations at the start of the weekly government meeting today (Sunday), rejecting the idea that it was Israel rather than Hamas which was rejecting a hostage deal.
According to Netanyahu, the "false" reports and briefings as though Israel was trying to kill a deal were "throwing sand in the eyes" of the families of the hostages and also harmed negotiations themselves.
Netanyahu noted that Hamas had not budged from its insistence that a deal mean the end of the war, that the IDF withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor and Rafah crossing, allowing Hamas to rearm and do October 7 again and again, and that the IDF not be allowed to search those returning from the south to the north for weapons or screen for terrorists.
Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would continue to apply military pressure on Hamas to achieve a deal which brought the hostages back while maintaining Israeli security.
