Netanyahu orders acceleration of hostage release negotiations with Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message Sunday that he had ordered the acceleration of negotiations for the release of Israelis held in Gaza, after seeing an opportunity to do so with Israel’s unprecedented attack on Iran.

“I gave instructions the day before yesterday to accelerate the negotiations, because I feel there is an opportunity… We’ll accomplish both tasks: destroying Hamas and releasing the hostages,” Netanyahu said, referring to talks with the Palestinian resistance movement regarding the release of hostages held in Gaza.

Of the 251 hostages captured during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza, 52 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 who Israeli forces say have been killed.

Hamas also holds the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in the 2014 war.

The Israeli military identified the hostage whose body was recovered from Gaza last week on Sunday as Aviv Atzili.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said on Sunday that regime change in Iran “may be the result of war because it’s a weak regime”.

Netanyahu’s remarks came in an interview with Fox News, from an undisclosed location in Israel.

Netanyahu added, “Our attack on Iran will end when we eliminate its nuclear capabilities, and we will do that”.

He suggested that Tehran was completely surprised by the Israeli attack, and surprise is a major factor in success.

He explained that Israel is prepared to do whatever is necessary to eliminate two existential threats in Iran, referring to its nuclear program and ballistic missiles.

He also stressed that Israel “won’t witness a second nuclear holocaust… We witnessed one in the last century,” and that we must act now regarding Iran.

He claimed that “Israeli intelligence indicated that Iran wanted to transfer nuclear weapons to the Houthi group”.

Asked about the goal of the ongoing Israeli strikes on Iran, and whether regime change was among them, Netanyahu said that regime change in Iran may be an inevitable consequence of war because it is a weak regime.

The Israeli Prime Minister also claimed that “the Isfahan reactor was destroyed, and without it, Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon,” he said.

He pointed out that “American pilots are shooting down Iranian drones heading towards Israel”.

He pointed out that “US President Donald Trump poses a major threat to Iran’s plans to arm itself with and use nuclear weapons”.