Families of Israeli captives urge mediators to continue efforts to release them

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) - Families of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza urged mediators on Monday to continue their efforts to release the captives under a deal with the Palestinian group Hamas.

They made the request in a letter sent to Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns, according to the Israeli news website Walla.

In the letter, the families affirmed their support for the mediators' efforts to end the war and to achieve a prisoner swap deal as soon as possible.

"We believe that the current negotiations under your auspices can and must succeed," their letter said, according to Walla.

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’s demands to stop the war.

At the end of his visit to Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Monday that he will visit Egypt and Qatar on Tuesday to continue efforts aimed at reaching a cease-fire in Gaza and a prisoner swap deal.

The US, Egypt and Qatar announced last week following cease-fire talks in the Qatari capital Doha that they had presented Israel and Hamas with a "bridging proposal" to further narrow "remaining gaps in a manner that allows for a swift implementation of the deal."

Hamas said Sunday, however, that the new proposal only meets "Netanyahu's conditions and aligns with them, particularly his refusal of a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and his insistence on continuing the occupation of the Netzarim Junction (which separates the north and south of the Gaza Strip), the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor (in the south).”

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed over 40,130 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 92,740, according to local health authorities.

More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar