The fury is great in Israel after six Israeli hostages were found dead in an underground tunnel shaft in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. After 10 months in captivity, they were killed only a short time before Israeli special forces reached them, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. An unnamed Hamas official told the AFP news agency that at least two of the six were on the list of hostages who would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in a new ceasefire. The information has not yet been confirmed by others. On Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a televised press conference: – I said to the families, and I repeat tonight: I ask for forgiveness that we did not get them home alive. We were close but couldn’t make it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on a collision course with large sections of Israeli society, including the defense minister and the security services. But he also has support. Photo: OHAD ZWIGENBERG / AFP According to the Prime Minister, the autopsies show that the hostages were executed by shots in the neck. – Hamas will pay a high price for this, the prime minister added. Hamas claims the hostages’ deaths are Netanyahu’s responsibility. Arguments over border area Three months after Israel and Hamas said they agreed to the plan put forward by US President Joe Biden, there are constantly new rounds of negotiations. Netanyahu reiterated on Monday that Israeli soldiers will not leave the border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the so-called Philadelphi Corridor. – We will not compromise on this. If we withdraw, we send a message that this is how we respond when Hamas kills us, said the prime minister. Hamas is adamant that the Israeli forces must leave the border area, as the Biden plan calls for. Since news of the slain hostages broke on Saturday, there have been large protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Photo: Florion Goga / Reuters Will not have an agreement Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide believes one thing is clear: – After the speech, I think it is clearer than ever that he does not really want a ceasefire now, Barth Eide says of Netanyahu. Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. Photo: Hanna Johre / news – A position that not only I and many of my colleagues internationally have, but also the leaders of Mossad, Shein Beth and the Israeli defense have expressed this several times: Netanyahu adds new demands to the negotiations that make them more difficult , says Eide to news. Netanyahu is adamant about what he calls “a full military victory” and that the war is over when Hamas is gone. – He sets a goal that is probably impossible to achieve. The risk then is that the remaining, surviving hostages will never get out. It is a disaster, because it is a complete violation of all legal rules to take civilian hostages, says Eide. – The problem is that the only way to get the hostages out is through a ceasefire, says the foreign minister. Eide says Israel and Hamas both violate basic principles that apply in the international law of war. Follow the developments in news’s News Center: Is the government cracking? The Israeli prime minister is on a collision course with his own defense minister and the defense generals in addition to the intelligence chiefs. Everyone claims Israel can control the border area between the Gaza Strip and Israel without having soldiers stationed there. And, everyone believes the time is long overdue for a new prisoner exchange agreement, to bring the hostages home. Chair of the Storting’s foreign affairs and defense committee, Ine Eriksen Søreide, believes it is clear that it is about Netanyahu’s own political survival. Both Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who both represent extreme nationalist parties, have given a clear message that the government’s days are numbered if an agreement is made with Hamas. Chair of the Storting’s foreign affairs and defense committee Ine Eriksen Søreide. Photo: Amanda Iversen Orlich / news – He (Netanyahu editor’s note) is fully aware that the parties he has formed an alliance with, and which make up the most extreme Israeli government I think anyone can remember, will oppose a ceasefire agreement. – They will withdraw from the government and thus the government will lose its majority. And for Netanyahu, political survival is extremely important, says Søreide to news. In the Israeli judiciary, several corruption trials against Benjamin Netanyahu await the day he is no longer protected by political immunity. Watch the full debate between Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide and chair of the Storting’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee Ine Eriksen Søreide discussing Israel and the war on the Gaza Strip. The US is pressing Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas attack on 7 October, it is estimated that between 60 and 100 of them may be alive somewhere in the Gaza Strip. Several of the hostages are American citizens. One of the six found dead in the Rafah tunnel was an Israeli-American. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in a meeting with the US negotiating team, which is mediating together with Qatar and Egypt in the talks between Israel and Hamas. The picture was taken on Monday 2 September. Photo: White House / Reuters Yesterday, Monday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met the US negotiating team. They discussed how the US can help push forward the agreement that secures hostage release. The United States, which has a mediating role together with Egypt and Qatar, will present a new draft for a ceasefire, which according to The Washington Post is “take it or leave it”. Ine Eriksen Søreide says the American pressure is necessary and important. BLOOD BROTHERS: A protester in Tel Aviv carried a poster with a manipulated image of Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: JACK GUEZ / AFP Will come home in coffins At the same time as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his televised speech, statements came from the military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam brigade: – When Netanyahu insists on getting the prisoners released with military pressure, instead of reaching an agreement, it means they will be returned to their families in coffins, writes spokesman Abu Ubeida, according to Al Jazeera. Ubeida also writes that the Hamas members guarding the hostages received new orders in June about what to do if Israeli forces approach the places where the hostages are being held. It happened after four hostages were taken out in a violent military operation, which resulted in over 300 Palestinians being killed. The Hamas spokesman does not write anything about what the new orders entail, but Israeli media write that the guards have been ordered to kill the hostages. Listen to the podcast: Published 03/09/2024, at 16.08
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