JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he ordered negotiators to “advance” talks on releasing hostages held in Gaza, after sensing an opportunity amid Israel’s unprecedented attack on arch-foe Iran.
“I gave instructions the day before yesterday to advance negotiations, because I sense an opening… We will complete… both missions: the destruction of Hamas and the release of the hostages,” he said of talks with Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Speaking on US news channel Fox News, Netanyahu said moments later that US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff “made an offer to begin a 60-day ceasefire, a ceasefire in which half of those hostages would be released right away”.
Netanyahu says significant progress made in talks to release hostages
“And I said, yes, we’re ready to go. There’s been some development there. I hope we’re able to do that,” he added.
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, 52 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas also holds the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in the 2014 war.
Israel’s military on Sunday identified the hostage whose body it retrieved from Gaza last week as Aviv Atzili.
Israel on Friday launched an aerial assault to destroy the Iran’s defence capabilities and cripple its nuclear programme, hitting nuclear and military facilities, and killing top commanders, atomic scientists and dozens of civilians.
Iran’s retaliatory missile fire killed at least 10 people in Israel overnight, according to authorities, pushing the death toll up to 13 since it began its military response on Friday, with 380 reported injured.
Israeli attacks on Iran killed at least 128 people on Friday and Saturday, including children, Iranian media reported, citing the health ministry, with hundreds more wounded.
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