Families of Israeli hostages slam Netanyahu, demand urgent meeting with negotiators

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – Families of Israeli captives in Gaza requested an urgent meeting with Israel’s negotiating team following the delay of its scheduled visit to Qatar for prisoner swap talks with Hamas.

The team was scheduled to travel to the Qatari capital, Doha, on Thursday, but the visit was postponed until next week.

According to Israeli media, the visit was postponed until after a scheduled meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday.

“A crisis of trust has emerged that requires clarification,” the Hostage Family Forum said on X.

“For two weeks, the prime minister has refrained from responding to mediators' inquiries regarding the implementation of a (prisoner swap) deal.

“This foot-dragging is a deliberate sabotage of the chance to bring our loved ones back. It effectively undermines the negotiations and indicates a serious moral failure,” the forum said.

Ronen Bergman, an analyst for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, expressed doubts that Netanyahu had intended to send a delegation to Doha on Thursday.

“The departure of the delegation was not scheduled for today or any other day, so it cannot be postponed,” said Bergman.

“According to senior officials in the mediator countries, those who were supposed to meet with the Israeli delegation have no idea what was being talked about (regarding a meeting), and they have not received a request from Israel to resume talks on Thursday,” he added.

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 the Gaza Strip.

However, mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’ demands to stop the war.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 39,200 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 90,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine 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 Tel Aviv 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 Rania Abu Shamala