Hostages remaining in Gaza is a ‘daily failure,’ Pres. Herzog warns as Netanyahu reportedly waits for Trump admin for better deal

With Israel marking one year since the first deal with Hamas, which freed 105 Israeli women and children, Israel’s President Herzog warned that not returning the 101 remaining hostages is a “daily failure.”

Speaking at an event held at his residence on Sunday, Herzog said, “We must understand and internalize that if we do not bring them home, we will be left with a bleeding, open wound that will forever burn our souls as a society and as a nation.”

In recent months, ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations with Hamas have ground to a halt, despite hopes that the killing of Yahya Sinwar would move the remaining leadership to compromise.

According to interviews the Times of Israel conducted with Arab and Israeli officials, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped believing in the chances for a deal amid the lack of support by Arab and U.S. mediators.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators, as well as the Biden administration, did not support the red lines set by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly that Israel would not withdraw its forces as part of a deal, yet they did accept red lines from Hamas.

The three Arab officials said that Hamas would not agree to a deal that included IDF soldiers remaining in Gaza, and apparently, accepted this demand as a precondition to any deal.

“The US views things the same way. President [Joe] Biden has said that it’s time for the war to end and Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken says the US will not accept Israeli troops remaining in Gaza,” one of the officials said.

Another official speculated that Netanyahu therefore delayed the negotiations in recent months in the hope that a future Trump administration would support his position and produce better terms for a deal.

However, hostage families have warned that the hostages may not have two more months to wait for the Trump administration to take office, and continue to demand that the Israeli government reach a deal as soon as possible.

On Saturday, the IDF said it would investigate a picture released by Hamas that purportedly shows the body of a female hostage recently killed as a result of IDF airstrikes in northern Gaza.

During his speech, Herzog said he had underlined the hostages’ dire situation in recent meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden and president elect Donald Trump.

Returning kidnapped citizens is “the highest and most binding order between a state and its citizens,” Herzog stressed.

Hostage families also held a separate event to mark one year since the first deal, attended by several former hostages, among them Raz Ben Ami, whose husband Ohad Ben Ami is still held captive.

She said that the “total victory” over Hamas which Prime Minister Netanyahu has declared as a war goal is “just big words.”

“You don’t need to be a genius to realize that doesn’t go together” with saving the hostages, she said. “We have seen that the [military] pressure kills them.”

During last weekend’s large hostage rallies, the parents of U.S.-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists in August, urged the Israeli government to act quickly as the hostages now face dangerous winter conditions and deteriorating health problems in captivity.

Referring to the weekly Torah portion, “The Life of Sarah,” Polin's parents urged the Israeli government to act quickly rather than relying on miracles to save the hostages. 

“Does Abraham expect miracles? No. He proceeds to act,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin stated. “I call on all decision-makers: be like Abraham in the weekly Torah portion.”

Last November, Hamas released 105 women and children during a one-week truce. Before that, four hostages were released without an agreement. Since that first deal, eight hostages have been rescued alive by the IDF, while the bodies of 37 hostages were recovered from Gaza.

The IDF estimates that 101 hostages remain in Gaza, including 97 who were kidnapped on October 7, two civilians, and the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were kidnapped during the Gaza War in 2014.