Following the announcement of a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran on Tuesday, voices both in Israel and abroad called for renewed focus on the war in the Gaza Strip, demanding the return of the hostages still held by Hamas, with Qatar saying it was working to resume negotiations between Israel and the terror group.
The ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump aimed to end 12 days of fighting that started when Israel launched a “preemptive” strike to thwart Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which it characterized as existential threats.
All the while, war has continued to rage in Gaza, where terror groups continue to hold 50 hostages, of whom at least 20 are believed to be alive, 20 months after Iran-backed Hamas started the war on October 7, 2023, with its cross-border onslaught into southern Israel.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, representing loved ones of the captives, said in a statement Tuesday that the Israel-Iran “ceasefire agreement must expand to include Gaza. We call on the government to hold snap talks that will lead to the return of all the hostages and an end to the war.”
“After 12 days and nights in which the Israeli people could not sleep because of Iran, we can finally go back to not sleeping because of the hostages,” the statement continued, alluding to repeated nighttime ballistic missile attacks.
“Ending the operation in Iran without using it to return all the hostages would be a grave diplomatic failure,” the forum charged.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and left-wing The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan also called for an end to the fighting in Gaza, following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire with Iran.
“And now Gaza. It’s time to [finish] there too. Return the hostages, end the war. Israel needs to start rebuilding,” Lapid said in a statement.
In a post to X, Golan hailed the “clear security achievement” of the campaign against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, calling for the ceasefire agreement to be “scrutinized” to ensure it meets Israel’s security needs.
He added: “And now is the time to complete the mission: Return all the hostages, end the war in Gaza, and stop once and for all the coup that threatens to make Israel weak, divided, and vulnerable” — the last point being an apparent reference to the government’s ongoing weakening of the judiciary.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, also called for renewed attention on Gaza and the return of the hostages — but not an end to the war.
The far-right minister has opposed previous hostage-ceasefire deals with Hamas, and threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government if any truce were made permanent with the group still governing Gaza.
“We have removed an immediate existential threat… and severely damaged the Iranian ayatollah regime, including by destroying dozens of targets in Tehran overnight,” Smotrich said, after expressing his condolences to the families of those killed in an Iranian missile attack Tuesday morning in Beersheba.
“Now [we turn] with all our strength to Gaza, to complete the task: to destroy Hamas and return our hostages and to ensure, with God’s help, many years of security and growth from strength for the people of Israel.”
The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, also demanded that the ceasefire with Iran be widened to include Gaza.
“The Palestinian presidency welcomed US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire agreement,” PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s office said in a statement: “We demand the completion of this step by achieving a ceasefire that includes the Gaza Strip.”
Abbas earlier this month condemned the October 7 attack for the first time, and has made a series of reforms in recent months, as he looks to gain support from the international community so that the PA can replace Hamas as the governing authority in Gaza, where the terror group deposed it two years after Israel’s withdrawal from the territory in 2005.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking to his country’s parliament on Tuesday, welcomed the announced ceasefire between Israel and Iran and said, “Today… the moment has come to conclude a ceasefire for Gaza.”
Qatar’s prime minister — whose country, a major Hamas benefactor, has been a key mediator in talks to free the hostages — said that he hopes indirect discussions will be held in the coming days between Israel and Hamas as part of a renewed push to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal.
“Regarding the Gaza talks, discussions are ongoing with both the Israeli side and Hamas in an effort to reach an agreement based on the American draft,” said Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, without giving details on what the proposal involves.
“We had achieved a lot in the past, but the Israeli escalation against Iran disrupted the process. However, we are still continuing our efforts, God willing, and we are trying to find an opportunity in the next day or two for indirect talks between the sides to reach an agreement,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from the Prime Minister’s Office about the Qatari leader’s remarks.
The war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas onslaught on October 7, 2023, in which thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.