The relatives of the hostages ask the Israeli Government to guarantee “all phases of the agreement”
The relatives of the 98 hostages still in Gaza – four of them kidnapped years ago – made an “urgent call” this Saturday to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to guarantee the implementation of all phases of the ceasefire agreement that begins tomorrow, hand over all captives and refrain from resuming the war after 42 days.
“We, the families of the 98 hostages, welcome the agreement aimed at bringing all the hostages home. “This represents significant and crucial progress that brings us closer to the time when we will see all the hostages return home,” the Forum of Relatives of Hostages and Missing Persons said today. “We urgently call for rapid measures to guarantee all phases of the agreement, and we emphasize that negotiations for the next phases must begin before the 16th,” he added.
In the first phase of the agreement, 33 hostages – those under 19, over 50, the sick and women – will be handed over in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and only in a second phase will civilians and male soldiers be exchanged for Palestinians. The document establishes that on the 16th of the first phase, Hamas and Israel begin negotiating on the next two stages, but many relatives fear that any mishap will cause Israel to resume the war, and the other 65 captives will not be handed over.
The group of families also expressed their “deep gratitude” to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, and the outgoing Joe Biden for forging the agreement, as well as to the mediators from Qatar and Egypt who have been negotiating for more than a year. “Now, after 470 days in which our relatives have been held in Hamas tunnels, we are closer than ever to being reunited with our loved ones,” the group stated. (Efe)
