Israel Issues Ultimatum To Hamas

What’s it about?

Israel has warned the Hamas terrorist group of a large-scale military operation in the city of Rafah, if the militants do not agree to release some of the 133 remaining hostages.

The Jerusalem Post reported.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz noted that if an agreement is reached on the exchange of hostages, Tel Aviv will suspend the operation. At the same time, the IDF continues to prepare for the operation, and Egypt has resumed efforts to free the hostages after weeks of what appeared to be a stalemate.

“The release of hostages is a top priority for us. If there is an opportunity to make a deal, we will do it,” Katz said, although he stressed that this would not affect the overall goal of the war – to destroy Hamas.

He spoke after the Egyptian delegation was in Israel on Friday for talks with Israel on the possibility of a new agreement.

Hamas considers Israel's proposal

Hamas said it had received Israel's official response to its latest ceasefire proposal on Saturday and would study it before providing its response.

We are talking about the possibility of releasing 20 to 40 hostages – women, the elderly and informed persons - in exchange for a pause in the war, which in the past lasted six weeks. Israel is also expected to release Palestinian prisoners and terrorists held in its prisons.

Hamas insists that it wants to end the war finally. The mediators tried to promote this issue without an immediate solution, because Israel insisted that Hamas could no longer remain in the Gaza Strip and must complete its military operation to destroy it.

On Friday, Israeli officials told their Egyptian counterparts that Israel was willing to give hostage negotiations a “last chance” to reach an agreement with Hamas before continuing the invasion of Rafah.

“Israel has told Egypt that it is serious about preparing for the Rafah operation and that it will not allow Hamas to delay,” an Israeli official told Axios.