The Israeli government said Saturday that it would not negotiate with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas over the release of between 100 and 200 Israeli and international hostages, because it was destroying the organization and not trying to save it.
Tzachi Hanegbi, the head of Israel’s National Security Council, said that the days of negotiating for hostages were over. While Israel was trying to rescue the hostages, it would not hostage prisoner exchanges or stop its military operation in Gaza.
The Times of Israel reported:
National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi said on Saturday that there are no active negotiation efforts underway by Israel to repatriate the Israelis and some other foreign nationals kidnapped by Hamas last Saturday, saying “there is no way right now to have a negotiation” with the terror organization.
“Israel will not hold negotiations with an enemy that we have vowed to wipe from the face of the earth,” he said, briefing reporters at the Israel Defense Force’s Tel Aviv headquarters.
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There are thought to be 150-200 hostages being held by Gaza terror groups.
Hanegbi’s remarks angered the families of Israeli hostages, who are already staging protests to demand that the government do everything possible, including negotiating, to secure the release of their loved ones.
Supporters and family members of Israeli hostages snatched by the Palestinian militant group Hamas last week in a surprise attack into Israel, protest outside of the Israeli military base of HaKirya in central Tel Aviv on October 14, 2023. Nine people captured by Hamas in an attack on Israel a week ago have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza in the past 24 hours, the Islamist group’s armed wing said on October 14. Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel on October 7 which killed 1,300 people, sparking a retaliatory bombing campaign that has killed at least 1,900 in the Gaza Strip ahead of a potential Israeli ground invasion of the territory. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP) (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images)
However, the fact that the leader of the attack on Israel, Ali Qadi, whom Israeli forces killed on Saturday, was released in a prisoner exchange in 2011 is a reminder of the risk.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.