Israel will continue to do everything in its power to free the 101 hostages in Hamas captivity, Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, Jerusalem’s point man on the abductee issue, stated on Monday.
“Negotiation efforts and moves related to negotiations are taking place constantly,” he said at the World Summit on Counter-Terrorism at Herzliya’s Reichman University. “The problem is the time it is taking.”
Jerusalem is still “unable to get to effective negotiations with Hamas, which torpedoes talks all the time,” Hirsch said. “I am happy that this is said publicly by our friends in the U.S., including U.S. Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken, [White House envoy] Brett McGurk and others.”
The retired general continued, saying “even though it seems that attention is spread across many fronts, that the war is large and we are being attacked from everywhere, we are not taking our eyes off of you, brothers and sisters. During every situation assessment and discussion in the Cabinet, we note the situation of the hostages and the ticking clock.”
According to the Israeli negotiator, there is a “direct and immediate” link between pressure put on the Jewish state by its allies and Hamas’s ongoing refusal to negotiate a hostages-for-truce deal in good faith.
“The idea of ‘no daylight between us and our allies’ is important,” he said. “Hamas identifies every ‘daylight,’ every sliver of light, and whenever it identifies ideas like ‘we won’t give you ammunition,’ arms embargoes,” this sets back talks, he added.
Hirsch told attendees that the Palestinian terror group sees actions against Israel at the United Nations, international tribunals in The Hague, as well as in other countries as an “achievement” of its Oct. 7 onslaught into Israel.
Hamas still holds 101 hostages, including 97 of the 251 taken during its onslaught on southern Israel a year ago, in which 1,200 people were killed and thousands more wounded. Off-and-on talks have continued for months with the U.S., Egypt and Qatar as mediators.
