Pressure grows in Israel for a ceasefire to free the hostages

From an unknown corner of the Gaza Stripa Israeli hostage He sends the same message that runs through the streets of his country. “You have to get us out of here, no matter the cost“claims a confused Chaim Peri, with a long beard. “Free us without conditions,” demands this 79-year-old resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, from where he was kidnapped on tragic October 7 by militiamen from Hamas. That is what a large part of Israeli society asks of its prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. After 75 days of war, they want their Government to achieve another truce in the negotiating table with Hamas to return the more than a hundred captives who still remain in the Gaza Strip. “We will continue the war to the end: those who think we will stop live disconnected from reality“Netanyahu responded.

“We are the generation that built the foundations for the creation of Israel and we participated in the construction of the Army,” said Beri, flanked by two other hostages, Yoram Metzger80 years old, and Amiram Cooper84. “I don’t understand why we have been abandoned here,” they denounced in a video shared by Hamas on Tuesday night. This message, launched by elderly people “living in harsh conditions with chronic diseases“, arrives the same week in which the murder of three other Israeli hostages by their own soldiers, by not respecting the code of the White flag. But, despite the fact that pressure is increasing inside and outside Israel’s borders, the Army spokesman, Daniel Hagarihas limited itself to calling the video “criminal terrorism” and has assured that they are trying to “bring them back safely.”

For their part, the families of those kidnapped continue to demonstrate daily in front of the offices of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. In Jerusalem, loved ones of war victims have set up tents outside the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in Jerusalem, calling for resignation of the Government. A day earlier, in the meeting between Netanyahu and the hostages’ relatives, the prime minister said that he could not ensure victory but that he would continue fighting, hinting at his intention to prolong the war as much as possible to avoid the purging of responsibilities that more and more sectors of society demand and in which he would be the first to fall. This Wednesday, the Israeli leader publicly ruled out a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas without having first achieved “the elimination” of the Palestinian Islamist organization.

Security Council vote

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“The war will continue until the elimination of Hamas, to victory“, he assured in a video released by his Cabinet, following the demands of the Palestinian group for a ceasefire to allow the hostage release. The political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyehvisited this Wednesday Cairo to discuss a new agreement to exchange captives for Palestinian prisoners, as happened a few weeks ago. The president of United States, Joe Bidenhas confirmed that “there are no expectations at this time [sobre el acuerdo de rehenes]but We are pressing“The United Nations Security Council also faces a vote on a resolution related to the war in Gaza, which has already been postponed twice. The US has continued to ask for more time to change the text to soften calls to end fighting and avoid calling for a ceasefire, which was the initial proposal. It is still possible a veto of the permanent member of the Council, as has already happened.

In the Gaza Strip, words no longer fit to describe a war that has killed 20,000 people. According to the Government Press Office, around 8,000 are children and another 6,200 are women. The bombings have not stopped, not even on hospitals in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where Israel asked Palestinian citizens to evacuate. The Palestinian Red Crescent has announced that it has difficulties in reaching the injured in the Jabalia refugee camp, north of the enclave. There, some 46 people have died and dozens are injured by the attacks of the Israeli Army, which has once again announced that it has surrounded the largest camp in the Strip. Both the Israeli hostages and the Palestinians from Gaza have the same desire. “We don’t want to be victims direct consequences of Israel’s military airstrikes,” Peri asked in the video published by Hamas.

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