Israel reportedly offering Hamas millions for each remaining hostage

Israel ‘s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly offering Hamas ‘millions of dollars’ for each remaining hostage kidnapped by the terrorist group during the October 7 attacks. The country’s military has also pledged to provide safe passage to the captors out of Gaza .

There are thought to be more than 60 hostages still alive and the bodies of a further 35 held by Hamas. Those who are yet to return home include dual British-Israeli citizen Emily Damari, 28, who was forcibly taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel. According to an Israeli official, the hostage takers and their families would be given immunity against capture or punishment, with the government set to pay out millions for the return of their citizens after almost 400 days since they were kidnapped, The Telegraph reports.

The announcement of the initiative came just as news broke on Tuesday night that Netanyahu has sacked his Defence Minister over a breakdown in trust during the Gaza war against Hamas . ‘Over the past few months that trust has eroded. In light of this, I decided today to end the term of the defence minister,’ the PM said in a statement issued by his office.

Yoav Gallant, who only returned to the post in April after being sacked last March, will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the office reported. Hundreds took to the streets to demand the return of the hostages in a march through Tel Aviv as news broke of the decision, Haaretz reports.

The mother of a hostage said: ‘Gallant’s dismissal sends a clear message – there is no one left to prevent the foiling of hostage deal; it’s time to take to the streets.’ Netanyahu had discussed a ‘millions of dollars’ deal for each hostage at a security cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli broadcaster Keshet 12 revealed. There has not yet been a response from Hamas on the initiative, which comes just hours after the group turned down the latest ceasefire proposal.

Egypt ‘s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Sunday that his nation had proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange four Israeli hostages with some Palestinian prisoners. The plan aimed to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a halt in fighting for less than a month in the hope it would lead to a more permanent ceasefire.

Diplomats and representatives from the United States, Qatar and Egypt have been leading multiple negotiations to bring an end to the war, which erupted after Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli official figures. Meanwhile the death toll from Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza is approaching 43,000, Gaza health officials say, with the densely populated enclave in ruins.

After receiving news on Monday that the ceasefire proposal had been rejected, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement that Hamas had ‘once again refused to release even a limited number of hostages to secure a ceasefire and relief for the people of Gaza.’ Speaking to AFP, Hamas official Taher al-Nunu, a Hamas official, said a ‘temporary pause in the war, only to resume aggression later, is something we have already expressed our position on. Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one’.

Hamas has repeatedly said it will only release the hostages in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas says those demands have not changed following last month’s killing of its top leader Yahya Sinwar , as the United States, Egypt and Qatar continue efforts to restart the negotiations. An Israeli official meanwhile predicted a ‘renewed momentum’ to devise a deal that will secure the hostages following the US presidential race, Ynet reports.

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