Pressure rises on Netanyahu over ceasefire deal as his speech to Congress looms

World leaders are pushing for a ceasefire agreement. Protesters are taking to the streets across Israel. And families of hostages are pleading with their leader to just make a deal.

These are just some of the pressures piling up on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as

his scheduled visit to Washington next week

draws near. His speech there before a divided Congress figures to be contentious, particularly if he cannot close a deal with Hamas to end the war before he travels.

Mediators in Qatar and Egypt have been negotiating over a framework for a deal that would stop the fighting and return about 120 living and dead hostages taken in

the Oct 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel,

among other terms.

On July 17, Mr Netanyahu told the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, that applying more military pressure on Hamas would yield more concessions in negotiations, suggesting that a deal was not imminent.

Mr Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, on July 17 called on Mr Netanyahu to cancel his speech to Congress on July 24 – unless he planned to announce an agreement.

“He needs to declare a hostage deal – without inventing conditions or raising obstacles every 10 minutes,” Mr Lapid said on Israeli news radio, alluding to reports that Mr Netanyahu had complicated negotiations by adding conditions that Hamas would likely resist.

The Hostages Families Forum, which represents relatives of the hostages, organised rallies at 30 locations across Israel on July 17, urging Mr Netanyahu to close a deal.

“Bring everyone back before you fly off for political tours in other countries,” Ms Ella Ben-Ami, whose father Ohad Ben-Ami is a hostage, said at the rally in Tel Aviv, video released by the hostage family group showed.

Mr Ohad Ben-Ami is a dual Israeli and German citizen who was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct 7 with his wife, Raz, who was released as part of a temporary ceasefire deal in November. Ms Ella Ben-Ami added: “Start here at home, earn your citizens’ trust and make this deal happen.”

On July 15, Mr Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defence Minister, told some families of hostages that no security considerations stood in the way of an agreement and that it was crucial to “exhaust all efforts” before Mr Netanyahu’s trip, according to a statement from the Hostages Families Forum. “Afterwards, it will be much more difficult and complicated,” he told the families.

Some in Mr Netanyahu’s governing coalition have urged him to oppose a deal with Hamas. His grip on power relies on the support of two far-right parties opposed to any agreement that would leave Hamas in power in the Gaza Strip. Critics say this has made him wary of committing to a deal that could lead to the collapse of his government and prompt early elections that polling suggests he would lose.

But others in his ruling bloc are calling on him to ignore the political threats. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party sent a letter to Mr Netanyahu on July 17 offering support and telling him “not to fear the voices within the coalition who oppose the deal”.

Some of the most persistent pressure has come from world leaders, health organisations and human rights groups, which have condemned Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza. The war has killed over 38,000 people and led to widespread hunger, said health authorities in Gaza. In a US State Department briefing in Washington on July 17, spokesman Matthew Miller said that, given the scale of Palestinian suffering in Gaza, reaching a ceasefire agreement was an “urgent priority”.

Some Democratic lawmakers said they plan to skip Mr Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, to signal discontent with his far-right government’s policies and its conduct of the war, and its opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state, one of the stated hopes for the post-war period expressed by the US and other international parties.

A group of 500 Israeli academics sent Speaker Mike Johnson, who invited Mr Netanyahu, a letter on July 16 asking him to disinvite the Prime Minister, saying he “has demonstrated his indifference to the ongoing hell endured by the hostages”.

Hostage advocates, who have mounted repeated protests to push for the government to reach a deal for the hostages’ release, are exerting pressure on Mr Netanyahu. Some relatives of hostages plan to travel to the US to protest against his speech, while others are expected to accompany him, highlighting divides over his leadership in Israel.

Mr Dani Elgarat, whose brother Itzik was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, responded on July 17 to Israeli news media reports that Ms Noa Argamani, one of four hostages rescued in an Israeli military operation in June, would be joining Mr Netanyahu in Washington. On social media, Mr Elgarat asked her not to go, saying her presence would undermine the chances of bringing home more hostages.

Mr Elgarat said he hoped that he and other relatives of hostages travelling to the US to protest against Mr Netanyahu would not find themselves in the “absurd situation” of also being in conflict with the former hostage accompanying him. NYTIMES