Israel warned Hamas it will carry out a major military operation unless the terrorist group accepts a deal on the table for the release of some, but not all, of the remaining 133 hostages.
“If there is a deal, we will suspend the operation,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Channel 12 as the IDF continued its preparations for the operation and Egypt renewed its push to secure a hostage deal after weeks in which it seemed that such efforts had hit a dead end.
“The release of the hostages is a deep priority for us,” Katz stressed. He spoke after an Egyptian delegation was in Israel on Friday for talks with Israel on the possibility of a new deal.
“If there is an option to make a deal, we will do it,” he said, although he stressed that this would not impact the overall goal of the war, which was to destroy Hamas.
Hamas considers Israel’s official response
Hamas said it had received on Saturday Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group’s deputy Gaza chief said in a statement.
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