In a telephone call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Blinken “noted that Hamas has once again refused to release even a limited number of hostages to secure a ceasefire and relief for the people of Gaza”
lol ok then
Israel has made it more than clear that, under Netanyahu and quite possibly after him, that they sell nothing less than the total removal of the Palestinian people from “greater Israel” (bc they want lebensraum). The only leverage Gaza has rn are the hostages. They’d be fools to give them up in hopes that Israel might make their open-air concentration camp a little more pleasant.
Gaza doesn’t have the hostages either, Hamas does. And by now it should be clear that Iran’s interests are placed higher than Palestine for Hamas.
There’s also a good chance many or all of the hostages are dead.
Even the hostages are only as much leverage as their families can apply - netanyahu has shown time and again that he’ll let them all die if it gives him another day in power.
And not just let them die, he’d have the IDF just carpet bomb the area and actively kill the hostages too. They’ve already shot a few.
