Israeli Citizen Desak Netanyahu Agrees With Hamas On Hostage Exchange

A number of Israelis demonstrated demanding that their government act to save their family members who are still detained in the Gaza Strip. (Between/Anadolu)

JAKARTA - A number of families of Israeli hostages detained in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, Sunday, demanded prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a hostage exchange agreement with Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

"Your job is to ignore any political pressure," the hostages' families said in a short letter they sent to Netanyahu, as reported by local daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

"History will not forgive you if you waste the opportunity to take them home," they said, adding as quoted by Antara.

Netanyahu is said to be facing growing pressure not to accept a deal that would end the war on the Gaza Strip and scrap Israel's land attack on the city of Rafah located in southern Gaza.

At the same time, Israeli opposition groups accused Netanyahu of trying to thwart a hostage exchange deal with Hamas.

Tel Aviv believes some 134 of its citizens are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel is currently still holding more than 9,000 Palestinians in their prisons.

More than 34,600 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed as a result of Israeli aggression against the region which has been taking place since October 7, 2023.

The ceasefire that was successfully reached last November agreed that 81 Israelis and 24 other nationals were exchanged for 240 Palestinians, including 169 children and 71 women, who were detained by Israel.

Currently, the United States, Qatar, and Egypt are playing an intermediary role in efforts to reach a new agreement between Israel and Hamas to free all Israeli hostages who are still detained in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's military aggression to the Gaza Strip has caused 85 percent of Gaza's population to be expelled from their homes, 60 percent of Gaza's infrastructure damaged and destroyed, and caused severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.

The International Court (ICJ) issued an initial ruling on January 26 ordering Israel to stop committing genocide and seek to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza.