Israel boycotted Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo on Sunday after Hamas rejected its demand for a complete list naming hostages that are still alive, according to reports. A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for the talks, billed as a possible final hurdle before an agreement that would halt the fighting for six weeks and … Read more
Gal Hirsch, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appointee to head up efforts to rescue the hostages will receive a yearly salary of up to NIS 500,000 shekels, but will not be a state employee or be able to direct state employees due to his pending indictment, according to a KAN news report on Thursday. Hirsch … Read more
Hamas made a demand for the release of Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti as part of a hostage deal with Israel, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Saturday. Barghouti, the head of Tanzim, an armed faction of Fatah, was arrested by the Israeli security forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 15, … Read more
The opposition party Yesh Atid would be willing to join the government in order to save the 136 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza if the far-right parties Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionist Party leave the government in opposition of a deal, opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid said in … Read more
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was shouted down as he addressed a special plenum session held at the Knesset on Monday in honor of the hostages still being held in Gaza and attended by the hostages’ families. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana opened the special session, which was also attended by most of the government ministers, … Read more
Qatar’s emir on Tuesday called on the UN Security Council to force Israel to return to the negotiating table over the war in Gaza, saying the inaction by the international community in halting the conflict was “shameful”. “It is shameful for the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue for nearly two … Read more
As the war against Hamas entered its seventh week at the end of November, the first major breakthrough occurred in the efforts to release the approximately 240 hostages who were seized on October 7 when 3,000 heavily armed terrorists stormed across the Gaza border, entering 22 Israeli communities and killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians. … Read more
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza in telephone calls on Sunday and Monday with Hamas and other Palestinian factions, the Russian foreign ministry said. The statement followed a series of meetings and calls between President Vladimir Putin and Middle East leaders in the past week. The … Read more
“As we speak, at least 1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, are starving, not because of a natural disaster or because of lack of generous assistance waiting at the border,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told a UN event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of … Read more
