Israeli officials have agreed to consider delaying their ground invasion of Gaza for a few days to allow negotiations to continue over the more than 200 hostages still held by Hamas, a report said Tuesday.
“Both Israel and the Biden administration want to exhaust every effort to try and get hostages out of Gaza,” an unidentified senior Israeli official told Axios.
“If Hamas proposes a big package, of course, we will be ready to do things in return,” said the official, one of two who talked to the outlet — and stressed that Israel’s plans for a ground assault would only be delayed by a few days, not dropped.
The officials acknowledged that at least some of the hostages have likely already been killed in Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza since Hamas’ sneak attack on Israel on Oct. 7. A Hamas official repeated claims to Sky News on Monday that Israeli strikes had killed 22 hostages.
The Israeli officials said they were aware that once their military launches its ground invasion, a deal for the hostages will be nearly impossible, according to the outlet.
They told Egyptian mediators that if Hamas wants any kind of agreement, it needs to at least release all of the women and children that it is holding.
The stance marks a shift from just a few days ago, when the Israeli military ramped up its presence on the southern border with Gaza.
Photos taken by Reuters on Friday show several Israeli tanks and other military equipment lining the border with the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials had warned in the preceding days that it would soon launch its ground invasion.
In a fiery speech Thursday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops they would soon see Gaza “from the inside.”
Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat also announced Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces had been given a “green light” to bring the offensive to Gaza — a roughly 140-square-mile parcel of land between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea.
But Friday, Hamas officials started to release some of the hostages.
“In response to Qatari efforts, Al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens [a mother and her daughter] for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless,” Hamas officials said in an announcement, according to the Times of Israel.
Former captives Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, were later photographed being escorted through the night by what appeared to be military officials.
Then Monday night, Hamas released two more hostages, saying the move was made as part of negotiations with Qatar and Egypt.
The hostages were identified as Nurit Yitzhak and Yochved Lifshitz, two Israeli citizens who were released to the Red Cross.
The terrorist group said on its Telegram channel that it was releasing them for “compelling humanitarian” reasons.
“We have decided to release them for compelling humanitarian and satisfactory reasons despite the occupation committing more than 8 violations of the procedures that were agreed upon with the mediator brothers that the occupation would adhere to during this day to complete the handover process,” the spokesman said on Telegram.
The rep also said the terrorist group had proposed releasing the two elderly women over the weekend but that Israel refused.
Israesli officials who spoke with Axios confirmed that account but said Hamas initially demanded that in return for their release, Israel stops its airstrikes on Gaza for six hours.
The officials said Israel initially refused because it didn’t want to create a precedent in which Hamas would release two hostages every time it wanted a cease-fire — which Israeli officials said could allow Hamas leaders to regroup and move from one hiding place to another.
President Biden said Monday that he would not consider backing a cease-fire in Israel until all the hostages are released.
“We should have those hostages released and then we can talk,” he told reporters, according to USA Today.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller also seemed to reject the idea of a cease-fire, arguing it would hurt Israel’s ability to defend itself from continued terrorist threats.
“Any cease-fire would give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit and to get ready to continue launching terrorist attacks against Israel,” he said.
“You can understand perfectly clearly why that’s an intolerable situation for Israel, as it would be an intolerable situation for any country that has suffered such a brutal terrorist attack.”