Hostage deal tensions soar as Israel strikes Gaza hospital
Ex-Mossad agents and hostage families have accused the government of sabotaging efforts to end the war, as Israeli strikes hit Gaza’s last functioning hospitals, forcing patients to flee.
Middle East
Don't miss out on the headlines from Middle East. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Hundreds of Israelis, including relatives of hostages held in Gaza, have rallied outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top confidant and the head of Israel’s negotiating team.
Emotions ran high as Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held captive, directly accused Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer of sabotaging a potential deal.
“You were appointed to head the negotiation team for the return of all the hostages. But we know, Minister Dermer, that that’s not the truth. You came in to run the negotiation in order to derail it,” she said.
“Your mission is to distance my son Matan from me.”
The protest followed Hamas’s release of a video showing Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander alive over the weekend as he pleaded for the government to take action. His aunt, Iris Schwarz, also addressed the crowd.
“There was no celebration. There was only his wail … We saw him underground, scared, injured, desperate, but sharp and clear in his message,” Schwarz said.
“He called out to us, to our people, to our leaders, to the American administration. He pleaded: Release me.”
Ms Schwarz accused the government of ignoring the hostages’ families and playing politics.
“Edan and the others can be brought home, but our government has other considerations. Everyone knows they can be brought home, but anyone who says so is quieted and distanced.”
She said the family has only met once with Netanyahu since the October 7 Hamas attack and has yet to receive a response to their request for a meeting with Mr Dermer.
“We are living October 7 every day and every night, so stop trying to scare us and using that threat to quiet us,” she said. “Stop playing politics and do your job.”
FOLLOW UPDATES BELOW:
MORE THAN 250 EX-MOSSAD MEMBERS CALL TO END WAR
Israeli news outlet Ynet has reported that more than 250 former Mossad intelligence members have signed a letter calling for the end of the war on Gaza and a return of the captives held in the enclave.
The letter by the former Mossad agents was initiated by the retired senior officer Gail Shoresh and signed by three former heads of the intelligence agency.
“We believe the continuation of the fighting endangers the lives of the hostages and our soldiers, and that all possibilities to reach a deal that will bring an to the suffering must be exhausted,” the letter states.
“We call on the government to make brave decisions and act responsibly for the security of the country and its citizens.”
This comes after army reservists signed a letter to call for the immediate return of the captives, even if it means changing the army’s current directive.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the letter, calling them “marginal and extremist”.
CHILD KILLED AFTER ISRAELI STRIKE HITS HOSPITAL
An Israeli air strike has hit one of Gaza’s few functioning hospitals, killing a child according to the World Health Organisation.
Since the outbreak of war, tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge in hospitals, many of which have suffered severe damage in the ongoing hostilities.
“A child died due to disruption of care” at the Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza after a strike, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“The emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines and the pharmacy were destroyed,” he added. “The hospital was forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals. 40 critical patients couldn’t be moved.” The military said it targeted a Hamas “command and control centre” at the hospital, a claim the Palestinian group denied.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said the strike came “minutes after the (Israeli) army’s warning to evacuate”.
AFP photographs showed massive slabs of concrete and twisted metal scattered across the site after the strike.
The blast left a gaping hole in one of the hospital’s buildings, with iron doors torn from their hinges.
Another air strike on Sunday on a vehicle in the city of Deir el-Balah killed seven people including six brothers, the civil defence agency said.
Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
Al-Ahli was heavily damaged by an explosion in its car park on October 17, 2023 that caused multiple fatalities.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged Israel to halt the “deplorable attacks” on hospitals.
Last month, Israeli forces opened fire on ambulances in Gaza, killing 15 medics and rescuers in an attack that sparked international condemnation.
MISSING MEDIC HELD BY ISRAEL
The Palestine Red Crescent Society says it has been informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that medic Assad Al-Nsasrah — who has been missing since an Israeli assault on Rafah last month that killed 15 aid workers- is being held by Israeli authorities.
🚨Urgent: We have been informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that PRCS medic Assad Al-Nsasrah is being held by the Israeli occupation authorities. His fate had remained unknown since he was targeted along with other PRCS medics in #Rafah.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) April 13, 2025
📢We call on the… pic.twitter.com/l0oOxujS8G
ISRAELI PM CRITICISES MACRON
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at French President Emmanuel Macron over his plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
“President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
He was addressing Macron’s remarks last week in which he said that France could recognise a Palestinian state within months.
Netanyahu said: “We will not endanger our existence over illusions detached from reality, and we will not accept moral lectures about establishing a Palestinian state that would threaten Israel’s survival.
“Especially not from those who oppose granting independence to Corsica, New Caledonia, French Guiana, and other territories, whose independence would pose no threat to France whatsoever.”
FOOTAGE SHOWS ISRAELI-AMERICAN HOSTAGE ALIVE
Hamas’s armed wing released a video over the weekend showing an Israeli-American hostage alive, in which he criticises the Israeli government for failing to secure his release.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified him as Edan Alexander, a soldier in an elite infantry unit on the Gaza border when he was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 7 attack on Israel.
It is unclear when the video was filmed.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, published the more than three-minute clip showing the hostage seated in a small, enclosed space.
In the video, he says he wants to return home to celebrate the holidays. Israel is currently marking Passover, the holiday that commemorates the biblical liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
Alexander, who turned 21 in captivity, was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in the US state of New Jersey, returning to Israel after high school to join the army.
“As we begin the holiday evening in the USA, our family in Israel is preparing to sit around the Seder table,” Alexander’s family said in a statement released by the forum.
“Our Edan, a lone soldier who immigrated to Israel and enlisted in the Golani Brigade to defend the country and its citizens, is still being held captive by Hamas.
“When you sit down to mark Passover, remember that this is not a holiday of freedom as long as Edan and the other hostages are not home,” the family added.
The family did not give a green light for the media to broadcast the footage.
Alexander made frequent hand gestures as he criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for failing to secure his release.
– with AFP
Join the conversation
‘Deep and big’: US issues stern nuclear warning to Iran
US officials have put Iran on notice as the two countries attempt to reach a diplomatic solution on the future of Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Read more
Israel ‘eliminates’ Bibas family murderer
The Israeli Defence Force says it has killed one of the terrorists involved in the kidnapping and murder of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir.
Read more