The latest round of hostage negotiations ended without results as the Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea returned home from Cairo on Sunday.
Off-and-on negotiations have continued for months with the United States, Egypt and Qatar acting as mediators.
Ground down militarily in 10 months of hostilities, Hamas dropped a key demand in early July that any deal contain an Israeli guarantee of a permanent ceasefire. However, it still insists that Israel withdraw its forces from two key corridors in Gaza.
Israel, for its part, demands an ongoing Israel Defense Forces presence along the Philadelphi Corridor between Israel and Egypt. Cairo, which also opposes an Israeli presence there, insists it can police the corridor, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary as Israel has uncovered tunnel after tunnel running under the border, and in at least one case, directly under an Egyptian outpost.
Israel also insists on a continued IDF presence along the Netzarim Corridor, a four-mile long, east-west road that bisects the Gaza Strip. Israel says it needs to monitor the corridor to prevent armed terrorists from returning to the north of the Strip.
The IDF has built four large outposts along Netzarim to house hundreds of soldiers, demonstrating its determination to maintain a permanent presence there, Ynet reported on Monday.
Israel’s government has highlighted its efforts to free the remaining 109 hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 7 invasion and massacre of 1,200 people.
“This is a national mission of the highest order,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Aug. 18.
“Up until now, Hamas has been completely obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure needs to be directed at Hamas and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, not the Government of Israel,” he added.
Despite the lack of progress in the latest round, the United States responded optimistically, calling it "constructive." U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington was working "feverishly" in Cairo to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal, Reuters reported.
However, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas-run channel, that "the American administration has sowed false hopes by talking about the sides on the verge of an agreement, and this for election purposes."
Mediators tried to convince the sides to agree to a four-to-seven day humanitarian ceasefire to deliver polio vaccines and other medical equipment, Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadid reported on Sunday.
Israel's COGAT, the Defense Ministry unit which coordinates operations in the Gaza Strip, said on Sunday that over a million polio vaccines had already been delivered to the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Hostages' families have pushed for a deal, saying time is running out for their loved ones.
The families and former hostages met with Netanyahu on Friday for three hours. The meeting became heated as they blamed him for failing to bring about a deal.
"They’re dying, and every day you’re killing someone else,” said one former hostage, according to a leaked recording of the meeting aired by Channel 12.
"You are the prime minister and you are responsible for the abductees, not Hamas and not anyone. You are supposed to reach a deal that will bring all the abductees [home]," said the daughter of one hostage.
"What deal? What deal is there?" Netanyahu responded.
"There's a deal on the table," she insisted.
“Whoever told you that there was a deal ready and that we didn’t take it for this reason or that reason, for personal reasons, it’s just a lie,” the prime minister said.
"To overcome an ideology, you have to use a lot of force, or eliminate it," he said of Hamas, which he noted still insists on victory by demanding Israel leave the Strip and the Philadelphi Corridor.
He called Sinwar a "crazy man."
In Sinwar, "We actually have a psychopath," he said.
