JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he had ordered the beginning of immediate negotiations to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The announcement comes a day after the defense ministry approved a plan authorizing the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists to help capture Hamas’s last major strongholds in Gaza City.
“I have come to approve the IDF’s (military’s) plans to take control of Gaza City and defeat Hamas,” the prime minister said in a video statement during a visit with the Gaza division.
“At the same time, I have instructed to immediately begin negotiations for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war under conditions acceptable to Israel.”
Meditators have been waiting for days for an official Israeli response to their latest ceasefire proposal, after Hamas accepted the plan earlier this week.
