Several family members of hostages still in the hands of Palestinian factions in Gaza blocked the Ayalon, the main road through Tel Aviv, asking the Israeli government to accept an agreement for the release of the hostages, while Hamas announced the approval of a version ‘modified’ put forward by Arab mediators. «This is your moment. Be brave, be a leader. The government and the war cabinet would have to accept the agreement. We need our hostages to return home,” Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, told Channel 12, addressing the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “If our government and our prime minister miss this opportunity,” she said loudly, “it will probably be my last chance to see Matan come home and other families to see their loved ones come home. The streets will burn, the country will burn… You can’t play with people’s lives like this.”
The proposal – however, a senior Israeli official specified – is “an offer made unilaterally” and is “different” from the one agreed with the Egyptian mediators and is therefore “not acceptable”. At the moment Israel therefore continues with its line regarding the Rafah operation and is not positive about a ceasefire agreement.
