By Paul Adams in Jerusalem, Anthony Zucher in Tel Aviv & Graeme Baker BBC News
Israel has rebuffed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call for a “humanitarian pause” in Gaza.
Mr Blinken said he had discussed the idea with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials during their talks in Tel Aviv.
But in a TV statement minutes later, Mr Netanyahu said Israel rejected “a temporary ceasefire that does not include the release of our hostages”.
He said that Israel was “continuing with all our force” against Hamas.
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All I read in the Israeli media is that basically Israel has given up on the hostages. And from Hamas’ standpoint, the smart thing to do is to hold on to those hostages for life, because the minute they let them all go, it will be a complete genocide.
You forgot that you have to give the enemy a way out if you want the hostages back. Right now they have nothing to lose and every man, woman and child Israel kills is in their advantage. They may lose their lives, but their lives weren’t worth living anyway the way you treated them for generations…but Israel will lose everything in the end and they still can’t see it.
You already lost.
The smart thing that hamas could have done is never attack.
Israel is never going to free hundreds of terrorists to get the hostages back because it will only embolden hamas. The only way fir Isreal to stop hamas is to eradicate it