Gaza War: Netanyahu Promises to Bring Back 'All' Hostages, New Releases at Heart of Negotiations

His visit, his first to the country, comes ahead of his planned meeting next week in Washington with US President Donald Trump, who is pushing for a halt to hostilities in Gaza and has taken advantage of an Israeli agreement to finalize the terms of a 60-day truce.

"I am deeply committed first and foremost to ensuring the return of all our hostages, all of them, without exception," said Benjamin Netanyahu.

Towards new liberations

"I especially want the people of Gaza to be safe. They've been through hell," Donald Trump told reporters Thursday. He was responding to reporters who asked him if he still wanted the United States to take control of the Palestinian territory, as he announced in February.

Hamas, for its part, has stated that it is studying "proposals" for a truce. According to a Palestinian source, this would include the release of half of the hostages still alive in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Of the 251 people kidnapped on October 7 on Israeli soil, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli army.

Israeli strikes and civilians killed

The Gaza Civil Defense reported that a nighttime airstrike on the Mustafa Hafez School in Gaza City (north), which was sheltering displaced people, had killed 15 people, including "a majority of children and women." The Israeli army claimed to have targeted a "leading" Hamas fighter and to have taken "numerous measures to reduce the risk of hitting civilians."

According to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Civil Defense, a first aid organization, 38 people were also killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting to receive humanitarian aid at various sites.

The aid distribution mechanism has been denounced by the international humanitarian community since it was taken over in late May by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an organization supported by the United States and Israel with which the UN refuses to collaborate. Amnesty International has denounced a "militarized system" through which "Israel continues to use the starvation of civilians as a weapon of war against Palestinians."

The Civil Defense, through Mahmoud Bassal, also accused the army of preventing it from accessing several neighborhoods of Gaza City, where dozens of people are believed to be trapped under the rubble.

"We are systematically and thoroughly destroying terrorist infrastructure, while maintaining a stable grip on the ground," said Israeli army spokesperson Effie Defrin, referring to "high-intensity" operations in neighborhoods in eastern Gaza City.

Given the restrictions imposed on the media by Israel, which is besieging the Gaza Strip, and the difficulties of accessing the ground, AFP is unable to independently verify the claims of organizations operating in the Palestinian territory.

In Israel, the political class continues to be divided between those in favor of a truce allowing the release of hostages and those in favor of continuing the fighting until Hamas is destroyed. "If we fail to eliminate Hamas, our children will suffer!" said the far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, in an interview with Channel 14.

Relatives of hostages still held in Gaza sent a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to "sign an agreement guaranteeing the return of all hostages" and to end the war.