National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. File | Photo credit: AFP
A right-wing Israeli minister on Wednesday increased pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conclude talks for a ceasefire in Gaza aimed at securing the release of hostages.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for an end to indirect talks with Hamas, which Israel accuses of killing six hostages whose bodies were found in a Gaza tunnel last week.
“A country whose six hostages are brutally murdered does not negotiate with the killers but instead ends dialogue, stops the transfer of fuel and electricity, and crushes them until they are destroyed,” Mr. Ben Gvir wrote on the social media platform X.
Mr Ben Gvir, along with right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, are key members of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government and have staunchly opposed ceasefire talks and insisted that continuing the war in Gaza is the only way to destroy Hamas.
Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have been going on for several months through mediators such as the United States, Egypt and Qatar, but have yet to achieve any success.
The United States said on Tuesday it was time to “finalise” a deal to end the war that would see the hostages freed in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington would work with other mediators “in the coming days” to “press for a final agreement.”
“It’s time to finalize that deal,” Mr. Miller said.
But Prime Minister Netanyahu has refused to make any “concessions” in these talks, despite growing domestic and international pressure following the recovery of six dead hostages.
A key issue has been Netanyahu’s insistence that Israeli troops remain along the border between Gaza and Egypt, known as the Philadelphia Corridor.
But Mr Miller said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed to withdraw its troops from the border area.
“The bridging proposal that we put forward, which the Israeli government agreed to, included removing the IDF (Israeli military) from densely populated areas. That includes the Philadelphia corridor,” Mr. Miller said, referring to the Israeli military.
“We are opposed to the long-term presence of IDF troops in Gaza,” he said.
Hamas has insisted that any agreement requires a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
During the Israeli offensive on October 7, Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
According to official Israeli figures, the attack killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, including some hostages who were murdered.
At least 40,819 people have been killed so far in Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, most of the dead are women and children.
Published – September 04, 2024 11:24 PM IST