Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met this evening (Wednesday) with representatives of 18 hostage families, for a highly charged meeting, in which he pledged to promote a deal, regardless of coalition considerations, Channel 12 reported.
According to the report, the families at the meeting demanded that the Prime Minister accept a deal even at the expense of dismantling his coalition.
The Prime Minister replied to them: "If there is a deal that is good for Israel, for the return of the hostages and the realization of the goals of the war – I will do it, it does not interest me. You asked about the coalition – there is no coalition. But if I think that the situation endangers Israel's security or does not achieve the goals that we want – I won't do it."
The families also asked Netanyahu that the additional deal would not be done in stages like last time.
The Prime Minister did not go into details and said that "the return of the hostages must be carried out in stages, as part of any deal".
The families also asked to put the issue of the hostages at the top of the list of priorities, given the urgent time. Netanyahu replied, referring to the three goals of the war – the dismantling of Hamas, the return of the hostages, and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip: "It is impossible to achieve one goal at the cost of harming other goals."