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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected an early deal for a
five-day ceasefire with Hamas-led Palestinian resistance in Gaza in
return for the release of some Israeli hostages, the Guardian reported
on 9 November.

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the Israeli prime
minister rejected the deal outright in early negotiations after Hamas
carried out an unprecedented surprise attack into Israeli territory on
7 October. An estimated 1,400 Israelis were killed, including many
killed by the Israeli military itself.

Negotiations resumed after the launch of the Israeli ground offensive
on Gaza on 27 October, but the Guardian reports that according to the
same sources, “Netanyahu has continued to take a tough line on
proposals involving ceasefires of different durations in exchange for
a varying number of hostages.”

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to the Guardian
for comment.

An estimated 240 people were taken hostage after Hamas fighters and
later Gazan civilians crossed the reinforced border fence separating
the territory from Israeli settlements.

Hamas leaders stated they wished to exchange the Israeli captives for
the more then 5,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli, including many
held without charge, for as long as decades in some cases.

Anger among the Israeli public towards Netanyahu is high following the
7 October Hamas attack, with many faulting him for the intelligence
failures that made it possible.

Many families of the captives are also angry, feeling that the prime
minister and his government are not doing enough to bring the captives
home.

The Guardian reported previously that Israel’s influential finance
minister and settler leader, Bezalel Smotrich, urged the Israeli army
to “hit Hamas brutally and not take the matter of the captives into
significant consideration” during a cabinet meeting late on 7 October
as the Hamas attack was still under way.

According to three sources familiar with the early talks, the original
deal involved Hamas freeing children, women, elderly and sick people
among the captives in exchange for a five-day ceasefire, but the
Israeli government rejected the offer.

“Each time a deal would go back to Bibi [Netanyahu] it would come back
with tougher demands,” one source said.

Israel then continued bombing Gaza from the air, and proceeded to
launch the ground invasion, complicating efforts to free the captives
further.

On 4 November, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of
Hamas said that more than 60 hostages were missing because of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

Israeli bombing has killed more than 10,800 people in the past month
and injured in excess of 25,000 more, according to Gaza’s health
ministry. Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s militant wing, Izz
ad-Din al-Qassam, has said that the group is unable to release more
hostages amid the mounting attacks.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/netanyahu-rejected-early-deal-to-release-captives-sources

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