Ben Gvir says he is “working to stop negotiations” with Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza

September 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Israel’s Minister of National Security, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, said on Wednesday that he was “working to stop negotiations” with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that would include the release of those kidnapped during the attacks of October 7, 2023.

“Working to stop negotiations with Hamas. A country where six hostages are murdered in cold blood does not hold negotiations with the murderers, but ends the talks, stops the delivery of fuel and electricity and crushes them to the point of collapse,” he said on his account on the social network X.

Ben Gvir said that “continuing the talks only encourages them to create more and more terror, including in Judea and Samaria,” referring to the biblical name for the West Bank, used by Israeli authorities to refer to this Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.

The Otzma Yehudit party leader’s comments come days after Israeli troops found the bodies of six hostages in Gaza. Israel has claimed that all of them were executed by Hamas, whose armed wing, the Ezzeldin al Qassam Brigades, has warned that further military pressure means “death and failure.”

The spokesman for the group’s armed wing, Abu Obeida, on Monday placed the responsibility for the hostages’ deaths on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and stressed that new instructions have been given to those responsible for holding the hostages on “how to treat them” if Israeli troops approach the places where they are being held.

The Israeli army launched an offensive against Gaza following attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian factions on October 7, which left some 1,200 dead and nearly 250 kidnapped. The offensive has so far left more than 40,800 Palestinians dead, according to the Hamas-controlled Gazan authorities, a figure to which must be added more than 680 dead in the West Bank and East Jerusalem at the hands of Israeli forces or settlers.