JERUSALEM: More than 50 freed Jewish victims urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fully utilize the Gaza peace package and secure the release of those still held in the Israeli territory.
” We who have experienced the fire know that a return to combat is lethal for those still kept behind”, a group of 56 freed captives said in a notice posted on the social media platform Instagram on Friday night.
” Apply the agreement in total, in one single move”.
Among those to sign the letter was Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two young children died while held hostage in Gaza.
Their appeal came as Hamas released a film showing Jewish prisoner Matan Angrest dead, images that his family said had left them” shaken”.
In the film, Angrest, who turned 22 in November, even calls on the Israeli government to apply the second phase of the Gaza agreement offer.
The second step of the Gaza stalemate ended on March 1 after six months of relative calm that included markets of Jewish victims for Israeli prisoners, though conflicts have not resumed.
While Israel has said it wants to extend the initial period until mid-April, Hamas has insisted on a move to the second phase, which may lead to a continuous end to the war.
Of the 251 captives taken by Israeli insurgents during the 2023 assault on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli government has said are useless.
On Saturday, a high-level Hamas committee is expected to hold conversations with Iranian officials over the second phase of the peace, two senior Hamas leaders told AFP the day before.
” The group will meet with Iranian officials on Saturday to discuss the latest developments, evaluate progress in implementing the peace agreement and handle matters related to launching the second phase of the deal”, one standard told AFP.
During its talks with Egyptian mediators, the Hamas delegation will demand that Israel “implement the agreement, begin negotiations for the second phase and open the border crossings to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip”, he said.
The Palestinian militant group wants a” comprehensive agreement that ensures a permanent and complete ceasefire”, the other official said.
He said Hamas’s demands for the second phase include a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, an end to the blockade, the reconstruction of the territory and financial support based on the decisions of this week’s Arab summit in Cairo.
He also said that Hamas was ready to “negotiate a prisoner exchange to release all Israeli prisoners including those with American citizenship”.
