https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-09-01/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-keeps-hostage-deal-off-agenda-as-gaza-city-takeover-looms/00000199-02c4-d558-afbb-4fdf4b410000
Netanyahu Rejects Partial Hostage Deal at Security Cabinet After IDF Chief Backs Gaza Talks
Israel's security cabinet gathered late on Sunday for the second time in less than a week, but once again, the partial plan for a hostage deal agreed to by Hamas did not appear on the agenda.
Instead, ministers were called to discuss the IDF's preparations for an operation to take control of Gaza City and Israel's response to the intentions of various countries to recognize a Palestinian state this September. Ministers planned to push for West Bank annexation, sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, and the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar as possible responses.
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir expressed his support for pursuing negotiations toward a hostage deal during the security cabinet meeting. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea, saying that the framework to which Hamas had agreed was irrelevant and not on the table, according to cabinet sources.
The sources said that the six-hour discussion focused almost entirely on a possible ground incursion into Gaza and on the presentation of the military's operational plans. According to the sources, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir proposed holding a vote on the partial hostage deal framework in order to formally dismiss it, after which Netanyahu responded that there was no need.
Netanyahu instead emphasized during the meeting that the immediate priority is the operation to take control of Gaza City. "The security cabinet has decided on this: Hamas's defeat and the release of all our hostages through a major effort, and the IDF has already begun implementing that decision," he said at the meeting, which was held in a protected room amid fears of a Houthi retaliation over last week's assassination of their senior officials in Yemen.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum responded in a statement that "Netanyahu is sacrificing the hostages and soldiers on the altar of his political survival, while a concrete proposal sits on the table, approved by Hamas, which could become the framework of an agreement that would return the last hostage and end the war."
The forum added that the hostages "could be ... with their families, or returning to a proper burial in their homeland, if Netanyahu were not occupied with systematically and deliberately sabotaging every agreement on the table."
However, despite the firm public stance, a senior Israeli official said on Sunday that talks are continuing actively behind the scenes. Three events that day offered an unusual glimpse into efforts to advance a framework for the hostages' return and an end to the war.
The first event was the IDF chief of staff's statement during a situation assessment at Northern Command, which included an explicit threat to the lives of senior Hamas figures abroad, a declaration intended to pressure the organization to compromise and allow progress on a new agreement. "Most of the remaining Hamas leadership is abroad. We will reach them too," Eyal Zamir said. According to a source, the statement is "part of the tools Israel is using" to reach a deal.
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The second event was yesterday's leak to the Washington Post of a 38-page document outlining a plan for Gaza's reconstruction, presented to the U.S. administration, which would turn the enclave into a territory managed by a fund under American oversight for a decade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu, last month.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
The third event was Sunday's report in Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth that President Isaac Herzog is considering limiting the sentence of convicted murderer Ami Popper to "soften massive opposition" from the right wing to releasing "heavyweight" Palestinian security prisoners. Political sources say the next stage of the deal will require the release of Palestinian prisoners in a move that will be hard for much of the Israeli public to accept, and measures such as limiting Popper's sentence could help ease its reception.
Netanyahu's decision not to officially reject the partial deal plan, which Israel had supported until last month, is also part of an effort to give the political leadership room to maneuver in negotiations.
On the other hand, political sources estimated that the killing of Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida would have little impact on softening the group's positions in talks with Israel. This is because the elimination of senior figures, including the Sinwar brothers, did not lead to a substantive change in the organization's initial negotiating stance.
"Negotiations are ongoing, there's a lot of movement," a source familiar with the current talks told Haaretz, though he also admitted it was difficult to gauge whether the process could mature into a deal before the start of the military operation in Gaza City.
While the cabinet refused to vote on the framework for the hostage deal agreed to by Hamas, high school students locked the gates of 17 schools in the central Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Givatayim, and Bat Yam overnight into Monday in protest of the continued failure to bring the hostages home.
"47 hostages and one still held in Gaza – we will not learn to live with this," the protesters wrote on signs hung above the gates of schools, which are set to reopen on Monday following summer vacation.
Students in around 70 high schools across the country announced that they would strike on Monday, demanding that the government "uphold its moral and ethical contract with its citizens, advance a deal to return all the hostages, and bring an end to the war."