Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing backlash from the families of the Israeli hostages still in Hamas custody, as well as the released captives and other citizens, after he revealed that Israel is set to focus on the eradication of Hamas, rather than the release of the remaining Israelis in captivity.
ARISE NEWS special correspondent, Karl Bostic, revealed this while giving a live report from Tel Aviv, Israel, sharing that Netanyahu said this while in a meeting with the families of the hostages,
Referring to the meeting, Bostic said, “That meeting yesterday basically was a stark defining point where he was saying one of two things. He was telling the families of the hostages still there, there’s still a hundred and thirty seven Israelis in captivity being kept mostly in tunnels of Gaza, telling them that we can’t guarantee when to bring them all home, number one.
“But also perhaps, more alarmingly, basically saying that our priority is to destroy Hamas, meaning that we’re going to go full ball on this, and freeing all hostages now is not the first priority, in part because Hamas is upping the ante. They raised the price so high demanding the release of all prisoners in Israeli jails, about 6,000 Palestinian prisoners at least in Israeli jails, to which the hostage families are saying what price is too high to bring all the hostages home?”
Bostic then said that from the result of the meeting where this was discussed, “There is a lot of disgust and acrimony against the prime minister right now, and this could really affect his political future. Latest polls are now showing his approval at 27% across the country down from 57%, and trust in him as a leader is now down to 4%.”
Bostic reported that it was being suggested that the war, with its intensity, could only last till the end of January 2024, saying that Israel, at that time, could lose its international support.
He said, “After 8 weeks of fighting, Hamas is still intact. The estimates are that Hamas fighters’ number between 25- 40,000. Israel estimates 25,000 have been killed. We speak about the tunnels, Israel has discovered about 800 tunnel shafts, they destroyed about 500. Then, when it comes to rockets, Israel estimates that they have about 30,000 rockets, 11,000 have been fired since the war began, and yet, after 8 weeks of war, you’re still getting rockets fired into Israel, not on a regular basis. It used to be three times a day on a daily basis in Israel.
“Israel has been told by the US that you only have weeks to carry out a war with this level of intensity, meaning, now it’s being suggested that a war of this intensity can only play out until the end of January before all international support almost, quite frankly, just evaporates, and make Israel more isolated internationally as its humanitarian crisis just goes into yet another hellish dimension.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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