Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since a one-week truce in November 2023, with the primary point of contention being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.
Another unresolved issue is the territory’s post-war governance.
Hamas’s armed wing said the fate of some of the captives depends on how Israeli forces carry out their offensive.
“If the occupation army advances even a few hundred metres more in some areas where they are already on the ground, it will decide the fate of some of the enemy’s hostages,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Netanyahu said: “I’m not going to agree to end the war before we remove Hamas.”
He added Israel is “not going to leave them in power in Gaza, 30 miles from Tel Aviv. It’s not going to happen.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on October 23 that Israel had “managed to dismantle Hamas’s military capacity” and eliminated its senior leadership.
With those successes, he said, it was time to “get the hostages home and bring the war to an end with an understanding of what will follow.”
Among the Hamas leaders Israel killed was its political chief Ismail Haniyeh, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday, in the first public acknowledgement that Israel was behind the late July death of Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel’s military on Monday said three soldiers were killed in northern Gaza, the focus for months of an offensive Israel said aimed to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.
In parliament, Netanyahu also warned the Iran-backed Huthi rebels of Yemen, who last week fired two missiles at Israel, including one that injured 16 people in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday.
“I have instructed our forces to destroy the infrastructure of Huthis because anyone who tries to harm us will be struck with full force,” he said, “even if it takes time.”
Israeli warplanes retaliated against ports and energy infrastructure, which the military said contributed to Huthi rebel operations, after a rebel missile badly damaged an Israeli school last week. The Huthis said the Israeli strikes killed nine people.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had intercepted another projectile launched from Yemen before it reached Israel.
‘Seize this opportunity’
