Families of Israeli hostages demand Netanyahu not to return to war when truce ends

The relatives of the 98 hostages still in Gaza – four of them kidnapped years ago – made an “urgent call” to the Israeli prime minister this Saturday, Benjamin Netanyahuto guarantee the implementation of all phases of the ceasefire agreement that begins tomorrow, release all captives and refrain from resuming the war after 42 days.

“We, the families of the 98 hostages, welcome the agreement aimed at bringing all the hostages home. This represents significant and crucial progress that brings us closer to the time when we will see all the hostages return home,” he said today the Forum of Relatives of Hostages and Missing Persons.

“We urgently call for rapid measures to guarantee all phases of the agreement, and we emphasize that negotiations for the next phases must begin before the 16th,” he added.

(Read also: The Israeli government approves the truce agreement in Gaza and the exchange of hostages with Hamas)

According to the draft ceasefire, to which the news agency had access EFEIn a first phase, 33 hostages will be released – those under 19, over 50, the sick and women – in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and only in a second phase will civilians and male soldiers be exchanged for Palestinians.

The document establishes that on the 16th day of the first phase, Hamas and Israel begin negotiating the next two stages, but many family members fear that any mishap will cause Israel resume the war, and the other 65 captives are not released.

The group of families also expressed their “deep gratitude” to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, and the outgoing Joe Biden for forging the agreement, as well as to the mediators from Qatar and Egypt who have been negotiating for more than a year.

During last night’s meeting of the full Israeli government to ratify the ceasefire, which lasted for more than six hours into the early hours, Netanyahu said he had received assurances from both the Biden and Trump administrations that if negotiations on the second phase fail, and Israel’s security demands are not met, it can resume the war in Gaza without consequences, the American media Axios revealed today.

“Now, after 470 days in which our relatives have been held in Hamas tunnels, we are closer than ever to being reunited with our loved ones,” the group said.

“Israeli occupation did not achieve its objectives”: Hamas

The Islamist group Hamas assured this Saturday, the day before the ceasefire agreement with Israel begins in the Gaza Strip, that the “duty now is to immediately end the siege and provide aid and shelter” to the Gazans, near 90% displaced from their homes in a Palestinian enclave in ruins after more than 15 months of Israeli offensive.

“The duty now is to immediately end the siege, provide aid and shelter to our people, heal their wounds, return the displaced and rebuild,” the Islamist group said in a statement, in which it said that the leadership of the movement has Been working on it since day one.

The postwar plan presented by USA It envisions a reformed Palestinian National Authority (PNA), under the control of Mahmoud Abbas’s nationalist Fatah party that governs pockets of the occupied West Bank, to take charge of the Gaza Strip after the war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adamantly opposed to Hamas continuing to maintain power in the enclave.

In its statement, Hamas celebrated the multiple attack on October 7, 2023 that triggered the war with Israel – in which at least 46,800 people have died, according to Gaza Health data – after Hamas and other Islamist factions killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251 people.

OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP

“Operation Al Aqsa Flood brought us closer to the end of the occupation, liberation and return,” Hamas said.

“The (Israeli) occupation did not achieve its aggressive objectives and only managed to commit war crimes that shame humanity,” he added.

In these 15 months, around 90% of the 2.3 million Gazans have been displaced, more than 60% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed and Israel has constantly bombed schools with hundreds of displaced people, homes and places of prayer, as well as leaving hospitals out of operation, where patients and medical staff have been arrested.

“The blood of our people who rose up in the war of extermination will not be in vain and will not expire, and the leaders and soldiers of the enemy will be persecuted and judged for it, regardless of how much time passes,” the Islamist group concluded.

(Read also: War between Israel and Hamas: figures of deaths and victims that the conflict has left until today)