Sep 02, 2024 09:14 PM IST
The Netanyahu administration, by stymieing a peace agreement, is complicit in Hamas’s brutal killing of six Israeli hostages
The recovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip has understandably triggered a wave of anger in Israel, adding to the complexity of negotiations underway for months now for a ceasefire that could both bring back the remaining hostages and end the bombardment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The bodies of the six men and women were found in a tunnel in Rafah area, with authentic accounts suggesting they were all killed only recently, after enduring more than ten months in captivity. Even more despicable than Hamas’s act of taking about 250 people hostage during the October 7 terror attacks last year is the killing of defenceless women and men while in the group’s custody. Such killings will only add to the anger on the Israeli side and complicate the work of negotiators from Egypt, the United States, Qatar, and other States working desperately behind the scenes to end the bloodshed that has continued for close to a year now.
The latest killings have also set off a fresh wave of protests in Israel, with much of the anger and frustration of the public directed against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, according to most accounts, is the person most responsible for holding up efforts to put in place a truce and bring home the remaining 100-odd hostages. If Netanyahu had signed off on various peace formulas negotiated by mediators in recent months, there may have been the possibility of these six hostages returning home alive. While the hostages were brutally shot by Hamas, there can be no doubt that Netanyahu’s government too was complicit in the matter. A ceasefire would also prevent further carnage in Gaza, where nearly 41,000 people have been killed by Israel’s senseless campaign of bombardment and attacks.
Israel’s extreme Right will likely goad the Netanyahu government to continue its battering of the Gaza Strip and Netanyahu’s interests too are aligned with prolonging the conflict. The war, however, must not be allowed to go on. Large sections of the Israeli public realise that the lives of the remaining hostages hang in the balance, as reflected in the protests across the country. Even as Israel’s allies in the West condemn the killing of the hostages by Hamas, they must ensure that Israel does not leave the negotiating table without a ceasefire agreement, which Netanyahu has stymied for far too long.
