By Zein Khalil
JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army warned the government that without reaching an agreement with Hamas, any large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip would endanger the lives of Israeli hostages, local media reported late Tuesday.
Israel is holding at least 9,500 Palestinian prisoners in its jails and estimates that 101 Israeli hostages are being held in Gaza. The Palestinian group Hamas has announced that dozens of these hostages have been killed in indiscriminate Israeli air strikes.
“The IDF (army) made it clear to the political echelon (government) that without a deal (with Hamas), it must be understood that any extensive ground operation in the Gaza Strip has a meaning—risking the lives of abductees,” the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
The newspaper cited an unnamed senior military official who said “the Cabinet will have to decide whether it takes responsibility for the lives of the abductees.”
The report added that the military has intensified its warnings to the government since discovering the bodies of six Israeli hostages in a tunnel in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza on Saturday.
Israel accuses Hamas of killing these hostages, while the movement maintains that they were killed in an Israeli airstrike as part of the ongoing war in Gaza.
There has been no comment from the Israeli government or the military on the newspaper's report.
The deaths of the hostages have sparked a new wave of anger in Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with daily protests holding him responsible for their deaths and demanding that he expedite a deal with Hamas to exchange the remaining hostages.
For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and a cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’s demands to stop the war.
A key sticking point in the negotiations is Netanyahu's insistence on maintaining the Israeli military's presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, a demilitarized zone along the Gaza-Egypt border, while Hamas demands a complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant previously said that Israel's withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor during the first phase of a deal would not pose a security threat to the country.
In contrast, Netanyahu said at a press conference Monday that achieving the war's goals “requires maintaining the Philadelphi Corridor,” emphasizing that Israel will never withdraw from it.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza following an attack on Oct. 7 last year by Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
The onslaught has resulted in more than 40,800 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and nearly 94,300 injuries, according to local health authorities.
An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.
Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio