Israeli War Cabinet minister calls for deal to bring hostages home

JERUSALEM

The Israeli authorities must stop deceiving themselves and reach an agreement to bring back hostages held in Gaza, said Israel’s War Cabinet Minister Gadi Eisenkot.

“The hostages are running out of time and every day that passes exposes their lives to danger. This is a critical time to make courageous decisions,” the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth cited him as saying during a War Cabinet meeting on Saturday evening.

While Eisenkot and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz support reaching a hostage deal with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant oppose it, according to the newspaper.

Hamas is believed to be holding nearly 136 Israelis following its cross-border attack on Oct. 7.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas which Tel Aviv says killed 1,200 people.

At least 24,100 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 60,834 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

According to the UN, 85% of the population of Gaza is already internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara