Israel: opposition leader doubts government desire to return hostages

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid yesterday questioned Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s desire to return the hostages from the Gaza Strip, after Hamas accepted a proposal by mediators that includes a ceasefire and a deal to exchange a number of prisoners.

Lapid said on X that if the Israeli government “wanted to return the hostages it would be now convening an urgent discussion and sending the teams to Cairo, not hysterically issuing three different briefings from different sources and crushing the hearts of the families.” Lapid described this as a “national disgrace”.

The briefings and sources referred to by Lapid are probably the reports by Israeli media quoting anonymous official sources that deemed it unlikely for Israel to accept the deal with Hamas. The sources said that the talk is of the movement accepting a different proposal than the one approved by Israel.

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