E.U. foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas on Tuesday reiterated calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all 98 captives held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, following a meeting with hostages’ families.
“It was extremely moving to sit down with the families of hostages still in Hamas captivity in Gaza,” Kallas tweeted, adding: “To not know the fate of your loved ones is unbearable.”
All the hostages must be released, “immediately and unconditionally,” concluded the top European Union diplomat.
Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, took office on Dec. 1, succeeding Spain’s Josep Borrell. Kallas’s opinions on Israel and the Middle East are not widely known. During her three-year premiership, she made her name primarily as a critic of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Borrell’s tenure was marked by incessant criticism of Israel and a lack of action against Iran. In September, then-Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Borrell would not be welcome for an official visit the latter had planned. Jerusalem then proposed an alternative date, after Borrell’s retirement.
After his last meeting with Israeli hostage families on Oct. 8, Borrell called for an end to “the unbearable suffering of all civilians in Gaza.”
Hamas is holding 98 hostages in Gaza, 94 of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, and four of whom were captured in 2014, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Thirty-six are deceased, including two from 2014 (Israeli Defense Forces Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul).
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that Hamas had accepted a draft ceasefire deal, however, the government in Jerusalem has not yet confirmed that an agreement has been finalized.
The proposed three-phase deal would include the release of 33 hostages—including women, children, elderly individuals and wounded civilians—over a 42-day period, in exchange for potentially hundreds of Palestinian terrorists detained by Israel, according to the AP report.
