Netanyahu vows to bring all Gaza hostages home

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today reiterated his vow to bring home all hostages still held by “militants” in war-stricken Gaza. His pledge comes as the civil defence agency in Gaza reported that 73 people were killed on Thursday in Israel’s ongoing offensive.

Netanyahu is facing significant pressure to secure the release of the captives, particularly after US President Donald Trump announced that Israel had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire with Palestinian militant group Hamas that could facilitate their release.

“I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our abductees, all of them,” Netanyahu told inhabitants of the Nir Oz kibbutz, the community most heavily impacted by hostage-takings during the October 2023 Hamas attacks that ignited the war. “We will bring them all back,” he added, in filmed comments released by his office. Out of the 251 hostages seized on October 7, 2023, approximately 49 are believed to still be held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli military states are deceased.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with President Trump in Washington D.C. next week, where the US president is expected to press for a ceasefire. “I want the people of Gaza to be safe more importantly,” Trump told reporters on Thursday when asked if he still desired the US to take over the Palestinian territory, a prospect he had announced in February. “They’ve gone through hell.”

Despite ongoing ceasefire negotiations and pressure from the US, Israel’s leaders have remained firm on their objective of crushing Hamas. The militant group, however, stated on Tuesday that it was reviewing new ceasefire proposals from mediators.

Meanwhile, Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported that among those killed on Thursday, 15 died in a strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. In an updated toll Thursday evening, he told AFP that 73 people were killed across the territory by Israeli strikes, artillery, or gunfire. This figure included 38 people who were reportedly waiting for humanitarian aid at three separate locations in central and southern Gaza, and a child killed by a drone in Jabalia in the north.