A member of Israel\u2019s War Cabinet says that only a cease-fire deal can win the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Gadi Eisenkot added that those claiming hostages could be freed through military pressure were spreading illusions. The former army chief\u2019s comments, broadcast on Israel\u2019s Channel 12 television station late Thursday, were the latest sign of a growing rift among political and military leaders over the direction of Israel\u2019s war on Hamas.<\/p>\n
Across the Gaza Strip, Hamas militants are putting up stiff resistance. The conflict, now in its fourth month and showing no sign of ending, has also inflamed tensions across the Middle East. Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry says more than 24,400 Palestinians have died, and the United Nations says a quarter of the 2.3 million people trapped in Gaza are starving. In Israel, around 1,200 people were killed during the October 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war and saw some 250 people taken hostage by militants.<\/p>\n
Currently:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 EU Parliament adopts a resolution calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, but says Hamas must go.<\/p>\n \u2013 Mexico and Chile ask International Criminal Court to investigate possible crimes in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u2013 Snubbed by Netanyahu, the Red Cross toes a fine line trying to help civilians in the Israel-Hamas conflict.<\/p>\n \u2013 Another Turkish soccer club ends its contract with an Israeli player over his posting on Gaza hostages.<\/p>\n A member of Israel\u2019s War Cabinet said that only a cease-fire deal can win the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and that those claiming they can be freed through military pressure are spreading illusions. Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, whose son was killed several weeks before while fighting in Gaza, told the investigative programme \u201cUvda\u201d, broadcast on Israel\u2019s Channel 12 television station late Thursday, that \u201cthe hostages will only return alive if there is a deal, linked to a significant pause in fighting\u201d.<\/p>\n He said dramatic rescue operations are unlikely because the hostages are apparently spread out, many of them in underground tunnels. Claiming hostages can be freed by means other than a deal \u201cis to spread illusions.\u201d Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have said the fighting will continue until Hamas is crushed, and argued that only military action can win the release of the hostages.<\/p>\n In a thinly veiled criticism of Netanyahu, Eisenkot also said strategic decisions about the direction of the war, now in its fourth month, must be made urgently, and that a discussion about an endgame should have begun immediately after fighting started October 7 in response to the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel. The spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says there can be \u201cno security and stability in the region\u201d without a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n The remarks come in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s rejection Thursday of calls by the United States to take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war. \u201cWithout the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of 1967, there will be no security and stability in the region,\u201d Palestinian state news agency Wafa quoted Abbas\u2019 spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeineh as saying on Thursday.<\/p>\n The Palestinians seek Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem \u2013 which were captured by Israel in 1967 \u2013 for their state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A member of Israel\u2019s War Cabinet says that only a cease-fire deal can win the release of dozens of hostages\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":25642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[8616,1629,2694,1450,1634,8615,8617,8619,1380,1677,1530,4268,493,8618,1418,3293,1647,587,504,536,8621,3615,6258,8620,95,3089,3294],"class_list":["post-25641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-8616","tag-ceasefire","tag-chile","tag-civilians","tag-deaths","tag-east-jerusalem","tag-eu-parliament","tag-gadi-eisenkot","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hostages","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-humanitarian-crisis","tag-international-criminal-court","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-israeli-defence-minister-yoav-gallant","tag-israeli-pm-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-mexico","tag-middle-east","tag-palestine","tag-red-cross","tag-south-africa","tag-turkiye","tag-unarmed-civilians","tag-usa","tag-west-bank","tag-women-and-children"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}