Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled the government’s weekly meeting scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on Sunday, following the IDF’s retrieval of six bodies of hostages from Gaza on Saturday, a government spokesperson confirmed. Netanyahu instead scheduled a National Security Cabinet meeting for 4:00 p.m.
Already on Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that it had canceled his scheduled visit on Sunday morning to an elementary school in Jerusalem to mark the beginning of the new school year.
The scheduling changes came amidst public criticism over a controversial decision in the National Security Cabinet on Thursday night that the IDF will maintain a continuous presence on the Gaza-Egypt border. According to recordings from the meeting published by Channel 12 News, Netanyahu acknowledged during the meeting that the decision likely meant the collapse of negotiations over a hostage deal.
Yair Lapid demands gov’t to meet
Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid penned a letter on Sunday morning to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud), demanding that the Knesset plenum convene on Monday with the prime minister in attendance in order to discuss a hostage deal, with Lapid said was supported by a majority of the nation and a majority of the Knesset.
The Knesset is currently in recess until October 28. The Speaker has the authority to convene the Knesset for special sessions during the recess. He must convene the plenum if at least 25 MKs request that he do so, but he still has the prerogative to determine the date.
On Saturday evening, members of Knesset from the opposition belonging to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC) penned a letter to committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) demanding to convene the committee and summon the prime minister to explain his “failures to achieve the set war objectives, the refusal to set new objectives, and the acceptance of a series of decisions that endanger Israel’s strategic position.” The letter was an initiative of MK Gadi Eisenkot (National Unity).
The bodies retrieved were of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino, the IDF said on Sunday morning. The IDF retrieved the bodies of the hostages from a tunnel under the city of Rafah in Gaza. They were likely slaughtered by Hamas shortly before the IDF got to them in Rafah.
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