Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Netanyahu putting politics before Gaza deal, dead hostage's daughter says


BBC:

Netanyahu putting politics before Gaza deal, dead hostage's daughter says

David Gritten
BBC News

Hostages Families Forum
The bodies of six Israeli hostages, including Chaim Peri, were brought back from Gaza by the Israeli army on Tuesday



The daughter of one of the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were brought back from Gaza by Israel’s military on Tuesday has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of putting “political priorities” ahead of a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Inbal Albini Peri told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that her 80-year-old father Chaim and his friends would have been among the first people freed under any agreement with Hamas and that they “should have come back alive”.

Mr Netanyahu has insisted he is making every effort to bring back all of the remaining hostages kidnapped during Hamas’s 7 October attack.

But Ms Albini Peri said: “I don’t believe a word he is saying.”

“I want him to say to my family and all the other families: ‘I’m sorry. I was wrong."

In her interview, Ms Peri did not explicitly explain what she meant by "political priorities".

Mr Netanyahu's far-right allies have vowed to pull out of his coalition, undermining his chances of staying in power, if he agrees to release large numbers of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in return for hostages.

On Tuesday evening, a senior US administration official criticised the prime minister for making what they called “maximalist statements” that were “not constructive to getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line”.

It followed reported comments by Mr Netanyahu suggesting he had told the US secretary of state that Israeli forces must stay in strategic parts of Gaza, which Hamas rejects.


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