“109 Hostages Held by Hamas” in Gaza Strip Since October 7 Attack on Israel. This was confirmed by the spokesman for the Israeli forces (IDF), Daniel Hagari, adding that “we will not be able” to bring everyone home with “rescue operations”. On Sunday, the Israeli army confirmed that it had recovered the bodies of 6 hostages in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, tomorrow, Thursday 22 August and Friday 23, new negotiations will be held in Cairo, Egypt, to try to reach an agreement on the ceasefire and the release of the hostages, declared the Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty interviewed by Sky News Arabia. It is believed, explained the spokesman for the Israeli government David Mencer, that of the 109 hostages in Gaza, 36 are dead and 73 are still alive.
Who are the hostages found?
The bodies of six hostages held by Hamas were recovered from an “underground tunnel” inside the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the IDF said that the bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Chaim Peri and British-Israeli Nadav Popplewell were recovered in the Khan Younis area. The deaths of five of them had already been announced by Israel, although Avraham Munder was thought to still be alive.
Hundreds of protesters gathered along Begin Road in Tel Aviv to demand a deal that would free the hostages. Alexander Dancyg’s son, Mati Dancyg, said yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had chosen to “abandon the hostages in order to survive.” “Netanyahu chose to sacrifice the hostages. Karma will judge him and he will pay dearly,” he told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
“We understand the urgency in light of the growing concerns for the health of the hostages and their mental state as time goes by,” Hagari said. “The IDF is working day and night to obtain more intelligence, to create more operational options to rescue the hostages, but we will not be able to bring everyone back through rescue operations.” “Bringing them home is our moral duty, it is a goal of the war,” he reiterated after the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six people in the Gaza Strip who were kidnapped in the October 7 attack in Israel.
New negotiations in Egypt tomorrow and Friday
Meanwhile, tomorrow, Thursday 22 August, and Friday 23 August, new negotiations will be held in Cairo, Egypt, to try to reach an agreement on the ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the hostages. This was stated by the Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty interviewed by Sky News Arabia.
“I am not sure that there will be an agreement,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a meeting with a delegation of hostages’ families. According to the delegation, local media reported, Netanyahu made it clear that “Israel will not leave the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors under any circumstances, despite enormous pressure to do so,” arguing that they are “strategic assets, both military and political.” The prime minister then reiterated to the hostages’ families that the war will continue “until Hamas is destroyed and the objectives of the war are achieved.”
“Hamas has ”shown flexibility” regarding the agreement on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of the hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ”Netanyahu is responsible for the lack of progress”. This is what is written in a statement released by Hamas, underlining that ”the recent ceasefire agreement presented to the group is a U-turn compared to what was agreed on July 2”. The statement released by Hamas reads that ”our brothers and mediators in Qatar and Egypt know that the movement has approached each round of negotiations with positivity and responsibility and that Netanyahu has always been the one who has hindered the reaching of an agreement by imposing new conditions and demands”.
Hamas then “reaffirmed our commitment to what we agreed with the mediators on July 2, based on the agreement finalized by Biden and the Security Council resolution. We call on the mediators to take responsibility and force the occupation to accept it.”
Blinken: “The deal must be concluded within a few days”
An ultimatum has come from the US. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made it clear that Washington wants an agreement quickly, urging the parties involved to “conclude the agreement now”. According to ‘Al Jazeera’, Blinken explained that he had spoken directly with the Israeli prime minister and that Israel has accepted “the bridging proposal” from the United States and hopes that Hamas will do the same. “Once Hamas accepts the bridging proposal, all parties will have to reach an agreement on the details”, Blinken added.
For the US president, it is Hamas that is “backing out” of the agreement, as he stated at dawn yesterday as he left the Democratic convention in Chicago. “It is still in play, but you can’t predict it… I haven’t spoken to my team in six hours,” the US president said, adding: “Israel says it can find a solution… Hamas is backing out.”
Words that Hamas called “misleading”, expressing in a statement “great surprise and dismay” at Biden’s statement a few hours after Blinken had invited the movement to accept the latest proposal.
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