Death of Gaza hostages: Israel and Hamas play ‘blame game’
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00:00For more, I'm joined on set by our international affairs editor, Ketaven Gorgiastani.
00:04Ketaven, what do we know about the circumstances of this operation?
00:08Well, first of all, the location, you said there was a tunnel
00:11under the city of Rafah. It's actually about a kilometer from the location where
00:17they successfully saved an Israeli hostage alive just last week. So that is significant in itself.
00:27But then really there is a sort of blame game on what exactly happened to the six hostages.
00:33The Israeli army says, as you said, that their assessment is that these hostages were brutally
00:41murdered, in their own words, shortly before the Israeli army got to them, the Israeli army,
00:48insisting that there was no real-time fire engagement in that tunnel. That has been
00:53dismissed by Hamas, who, on the other hand, blame the Israelis for the deaths of these hostages,
01:01saying that they were, quote, killed by the occupation's fire and bombing.
01:07Whatever happened, these hostages are now dead. They have been retrieved by the Israeli army,
01:15which means that we're now at an official tally, this according to Israeli officials,
01:21of 101 hostages still remaining, with about 30 hostages believed to be dead. So still a lot of
01:31these hostages being held either by Hamas or by other groups in the area. This has, of course,
01:39angered the families of the hostages. There was a statement by one of the hostage family groups
01:44that said that a deal for the return of the hostages had been on the table for over two
01:48months, and were it not for the delays, sabotage and excuses, they would likely still be alive.
01:55So they are really calling now for a mass protest today, later on today, calling on the government
02:01to go ahead with that ceasefire and hostage release deal. The rally is called Bring the Nation to a
02:10Halt, and the goal for them, according to their website, is that the entire nation will be standing
02:16alongside the hostages' families to protest the cabinet's ongoing neglect of the hostages. So
02:22really the families blaming the Benjamin Netanyahu government for what is happening right now.
02:28The two sides have failed to agree to a deal for months now.
02:31Where does this leave a potential hostage and ceasefire deal?
02:35Well, clearly there's a lot of pressure from the hostage families, from a big chunk of the
02:40population, because these protests have been going on and you see also people who have nothing
02:46to do with the hostages who are calling on the government to move ahead with that deal. There's
02:51also quite a bit of division within the government. This was reported by the Israeli media over the
02:57past few days, this sort of shouting match between Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, and his
03:03Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, who was accusing Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters of
03:11prioritizing this strategic corridor that is on the border between Gaza and Egypt over the lives
03:18of the hostages, that corridor being one of the sticking points to this possible ceasefire deal.
03:24There again, in that issue of the deal, there is some blame going around. Hamas is accusing Israel
03:31of refusing to go along with the elements of that deal, and they say that at least three
03:38hostages that were recovered, they were on a list for a potential swap if that deal had been agreed
03:45to. Benjamin Netanyahu blaming Hamas, saying that whoever murders hostages does not want a deal,
03:53but issuing this warning to Hamas. Let's take a listen to the Israeli Prime Minister.
03:59To Hamas terrorists who murdered our hostages and to their leaders, you are dead men. We will
04:08not rest until we track you down. We will get you and we'll settle our score.
04:18Of course, a ceasefire and tracking every single Hamas member down doesn't really
04:23seem to be fitting, but the mediators, the Qataris, the Americans, the Egyptians are
04:29continuing their mediation efforts. They're continuing to be optimistic. Joe Biden just
04:35yesterday saying that he was optimistic because all these parties were still willing to talk,
04:41willing to meet. But for now, that really is where we are at, is being optimistic because
04:47they are still talking, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, at least for now.
04:50All right. Well, hopefully this will give sort of a final push to that deal,
04:53Kitavan. Thank you so much for that. As always,
04:55that's our international affairs editor there, Kitavan Ghorjasdani.