The words of the President of the State at the "Bnei David" preparatory school My husband/photographer: Roy Avraham, recorder: Yehezkel Kandil
State President Yitzhak Herzog today (Tuesday) referred to the crisis in negotiations over the hostage deal, saying that everything begins and ends with the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.
"In the end there is no choice, we have to continue the war, and we have to bring Sinwar dead or alive so that we can see the abductees at home," said Herzog at the initiation ceremony of the Mobilay Campus in Jerusalem.
In his words, the president did not refer to the draft exemption issue or to the Netanyahu government's serious crisis vis-a-vis the US.
Herzog also said: "The reality is this - and the world and we must realize this: everything begins and ends with Yahya Sinwar.
He is the one who decided on the Shiva massacre in October, he is the one who since then seeks to shed the blood of innocents, he is the one who strives to heat up the regional division, to destroy Ramadan, to do everything to destroy the common life, in our country and the entire region and to conflict us within ourselves.
He who seeks to use terrorism on the entire world and the entire region knows that the responsibility lies only with him and it will not work for him.
We will not give him up."
Herzog noted that Israel is doing everything to return the abductees home: "At this moment we must be united and united.
Israel is making every effort to return the abductees home.
Makes every effort in many and varied ways.
From here I strengthen the families of the abductees, and tell them: the State of Israel will do everything to bring them home."
"At this moment we must be united and cohesive."
Herzog/photo processing, photographer: Avi Kaner, recorder: Shmuel Ettinger
Herzog's words come against the backdrop of the Hamas terrorist organization's refusal to outline a hostage deal.
In the message he published, he informed the mediators that he "sticks to his position and approach that he presented, and this after Israel's answer does not respond positively to any of the basic demands of the people and our opposition."
As written, the demands are "a complete ceasefire, withdrawal from the Strip, the return of the refugees and a genuine exchange of prisoners".
The terrorist organization also emphasized that "Netanyahu and his extremist government must bear full responsibility for the failure of all negotiation efforts and the failure to reach an agreement so far."
Hamas's refusal came shortly after the UN Security Council's decision, which called for an immediate cease-fire, and was therefore seen as exploiting it for hardening his positions.
14 countries voted in favor of the decision - the US abstained and did not veto.
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Following the US decision not to veto, the Prime Minister's Office announced that Netanyahu decided not to send the Israeli delegation to the US.
This morning, the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement stating that Hamas' position in the negotiations "clearly proves that it is not interested in its continuation". In addition, it blamed the Security Council for its decision. The statement was published after reports that the Israeli negotiating delegation had left Qatar.
"Hamas' position clearly proves that Hamas is not interested in continuing negotiations for a deal, and is an unfortunate testimony to the damage of the Security Council's decision," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement. "Hamas once again rejected any American compromise proposal and repeated its extreme demands: an immediate end to the war, withdrawal the complete withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip and the retention of power so that it can repeat the massacre of October 7 again and again, as it promised to do. Hamas refused any American compromise proposal, and also welcomed the Security Council's decision.
"Israel will not submit to the delusional demands of Hamas, and will continue To act to achieve all the goals of the war: to release all the abductees, to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel."
"Israel will not submit to the delusional demands of Hamas."
Netanyahu/photo processing, photo: Nimrod Klikman
A senior official involved in the negotiations who spoke with Walla!
backed up the Prime Minister's words and said that "Israel received a clear and unequivocal answer from Hamas, they were not ready to be flexible on any point".
According to him, "On the question of the return of the citizens to the north of the Gaza Strip - Hamas's demand is unequivocal - an unlimited return of the population and if not an absolute passage through an IDF drain - that is, Israel will not have the opportunity to monitor who returns to where. This would lead to the return of thousands of Hamas members Back to the north of the Gaza Strip."
Also on the question of the keys to the release of the abductees, the source said, Hamas's refusal was absolute.
"Zero reference to the American compromise proposal," he added.
"An absolute demand that they be the ones to decide who will be released. Reiteration of their position from the beginning. Therefore, the Israeli side folded up the teams and returned to Israel. There was an indication of some kind of flexibility, an answer of 'no, but'. But what we got was not absolute. Not a millimeter of flexibility. No regrets. Just a repetition of the demands for a complete withdrawal and the cessation of hostilities."
More on the same topic:
Yitzhak Herzog
Yahya Sinwar
Hamas
abducted
Gaza war
War of Iron Swords