Netanyahu on expulsion of senior Hamas officials: 'We are talking about this possibility'
During a meeting with the families of the hostages on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in response to a question from one of the family members regarding the expulsion of the Hamas leadership from Gaza: "We are talking about this possibility."
Netanyahu also said the government is considering making the Israeli proposal public and emphasized that the release of the hostages will not be achieved without military pressure.
The prime minister met with representatives of the families of 10 to 15 hostages at the Kirya IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv. The purpose of the meeting was to update the families regarding the status of the negotiations on the return of the hostages or lack thereof.
In the meeting, Netanyahu said: "Hamas has softened the ultimatum, the contacts are taking place now."
A member of the forum added: "According to all the information we have, the negotiations are currently deadlocked."
However, the refusal of the Prime Minister's Office to publish the names of the families that participated in the meeting with Netanyahu created tension with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
While the families claim that such information is very important to them, the Prime Minister’s Office told the KAN news outlet: "The list cannot be given to any third party, including the Forum. Some of the families meeting with the prime minister are not members of the forum, while others are indeed represented by it. In any case, we cannot give out their names."
KAN learned that the families of the hostages meeting with the prime minister on Tuesday include the Calderon, Munder, Ziadna, Breslavsky and Dalal families, as well as Alon Nimrodi, Klara Sigal-Koren and the daughters of Michel Nisenbaum, Chen and Michal.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum told KAN: "The Hirsch headquarters refuses to provide the Families Forum with the information regarding the families invited to the meeting and creates a very strange and puzzling division. Members of the Families Forum feel that Gal Hirsch is working to undermine the Families Forum and to harm its activities."
Yoav Borowitz is a senior producer and correspondent for KAN 11 news.
