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Two more hostages were freed by Hamas fighters last night out of more than 200 seized in the 7 October terror attack. Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79, were released for “compelling humanitarian reasons”, Hamas said.
As Lifschitz, a lifelong peace activist, was delivered to the Egyptian border, she shook the hand of one of the masked Hamas gunmen and said ‘‘shalom’’, meaning “peace”, despite the fact her partner is still imprisoned.
Their release raises hope for other hostages still in Gaza as Israel prepares a land invasion of the devastated Palestinian enclave.
It is understood that the two sides are in advanced negotiations via Egypt and Qatar for the release of a further 50 dual nationals but that talks hit a rut on Monday when Hamas conditioned their release on Israel allowing fuel into Gaza.
“The view of the various countries involved in negotiations including the US is that if there’s a land invasion it will be near impossible to get the hostages out,” a person briefed on the negotiations told the FT. “The US has conveyed this to Israel.”
Senior Israeli military officials have reiterated that they are ready for the ground operation but are awaiting orders from the government.
Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday morning that the military was “ready and determined” for the next stage in the war.
One of the key factors holding them back is the fate of the hostages. Any ground invasion by the Israeli forces would likely mean hostages would be killed or be used as human shields.
There has also been a flurry of reports about cracks beginning to emerge in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national unity government.
The offices of Netanyahu, the Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and the Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, all released statements saying there was “complete and mutual trust and a clear unity of purpose” between them.
As videos of indescribable human suffering in Gaza lead the news night after night, Israel fears it is losing international goodwill. On Monday, the Israeli military screened 43 minutes of raw footage of the Hamas terrorist attack to journalists yesterday “to counter denial of atrocities”.
Even the most hardened war correspondents would have struggled to sit through it. The footage is distilled from hundreds of hours of body camera footage taken from dead gunmen, as well as CCTV and dash camera footage.
It showed some boasting about killing 10 Israelis with their bare hands, blowing up little boys with grenades and trying to behead someone who looks to be still alive with a garden hoe.