Israel to restart Gaza talks after hostage video sparks outrage

JERUSALEM – Israel has said it will revive stalled ceasefire talks with Hamas after a social media video showing female Israeli soldiers being abducted by the militants on Oct 7 sparked a public outcry.

The 190-second clip, compiled from footage filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack,

shows five young women in civilian clothes, some bruised and bloodied

, lined up against a wall before being pushed into a jeep.

The women, who Israel confirmed are military personnel, were kidnapped when Hamas

raided border towns in southern Israel and killed 1,200 people

. The attack triggered an Israeli military response that has destroyed much of Gaza and killed more than 35,000 Palestinians.

The clip, taken from a militant’s body camera footage, was released by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum on May 22 after the Israeli army lifted censorship on it.

“The footage reveals the violent, humiliating and traumatising treatment the girls endured on the day of their abduction, their eyes filled with raw terror,” the forum said.

More than 100 Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza by Hamas, although it is unclear how many are still alive. Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

In a statement, Hamas said the video showed “deliberate distortions” and dismissed the women’s injuries as “something to be expected”. The statement did not address the talks.

Global pressure for a ceasefire has mounted on Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as three European countries said on May 22 that they would recognise a Palestinian state.

The week started with the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC)

seeking arrest warrants over war crimes for Mr Netanyahu

and his defence minister, as well as three Hamas leaders.

Israel has angrily rejected those moves, voicing “disgust” over the ICC action and labelling a recognition of the state of Palestine as a “reward for terrorism”.

But domestic pressure has also risen as supporters of hostages trapped in war-torn Gaza again rallied outside Mr Netanyahu’s office, passionately demanding steps to free them.

Mr Netanyahu vowed on May 22 to continue fighting Hamas to “ensure what we have seen tonight never happens again”, and more bombardment rained down overnight on targets in the devastated Gaza Strip.

But his office also said the war Cabinet has asked the Israeli negotiating team “to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages”.

Bleak assessment

The previous round of truce talks, involving US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators, ended shortly after Israel launched its attack on Gaza’s far southern city of Rafah early in May.

Israeli forces went ahead with their assault on the last Gaza city so far spared a major ground offensive in defiance of global opposition, including from the US.

Washington voiced concerns that 1.4 million Palestinians who have been trapped in crowded tent cities and shelters there would be caught in the line of fire.

Israel has since ordered mass evacuations from the city, and the UN says more than 800,000 people have fled.

US President Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on May 22 that the Rafah operation “has been more targeted and limited” than feared, and “has not involved major military operations into the heart of dense urban areas”.

But he stopped short of saying Israel has addressed American concerns, adding that Washington was closely watching ongoing Israeli actions.

Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi has, meanwhile, given a bleak assessment of the war so far to a meeting of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 13.

He reportedly said Israel has “not achieved any of the strategic aims of the war – not conditions for a hostage deal, we haven’t toppled Hamas, and we haven’t allowed residents of the (Gaza) periphery to return safely home”.

‘Cycles of violence’

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Oct 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting raged again in Gaza, where journalists on the ground reported fresh strikes early on May 23 around Rafah.

Israeli troops in the city have “dismantled a number of tunnel shafts and launchers in the area, and eliminated several terrorists during close-quarters encounters”, said the military.

Urban combat has also flared again in northern areas, including Jabalia which Israeli forces first entered several months ago.

Israeli forces there “targeted several Hamas terrorists during strikes on military compounds” and located AK-47 and sniper rifles, grenades and other weaponry, the military said.

Israel has also imposed a siege that has deprived Gaza’s 2.4 million people of most drinking water, food, medical and fuel supplies.

The sporadic arrival of aid by truck slowed further after Israeli forces took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Jordan and others have kept up aid airdrops, and relief goods have been shipped in via a US-built pier, but many trucks were quickly swamped by desperate crowds.

Israel has faced ever greater opposition to the bloody war around the world, and pro-Palestinian protests have swept US and other university campuses.

Israel reacted with fury after Ireland, Norway and Spain said they would recognise a Palestinian state from May 28, a move praised by Palestinians and across the Arab world. It recalled its envoys to Dublin, Oslo and Madrid and summoned their ambassadors for a rebuke.

Most Western governments say they are willing to recognise Palestinian statehood one day, but not before thorny issues such as final borders and the status of Jerusalem are settled.

The White House said Mr Biden opposed unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying it should be realised “through direct negotiations”.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the Oct 7 attack “barbaric” but also stressed that “a two-state solution is the only way out of the generational cycles of violence”. AFP, BLOOMBERG