Israelis have been staging protests to demand Netanyahu’s government reach a prisoner swap deal with the Palestinian Resistance movement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that the conditions necessary for the return of Israeli captives in Gaza are “becoming ripe,” according to the Anadolu news agency.

“The conditions for returning them are becoming ripe, for the simple reason that we are putting very strong pressure on Hamas,” Netanyahu said during a meeting on Monday with American families of the captives, ahead of an official visit to Washington.

The Israeli premier also noted that the deal “will not take place all at once; there will be stages.”

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“I am not prepared in any way to give in on the victory over Hamas. If we give up on this, we will be in danger in the face of Iran’s entire axis of evil,” he is also reported as saying.

Hamas is believed to have been holding around 120 Israeli captives following its October 7 resistance operation.

Israelis have been staging protests to demand Netanyahu’s government reach a prisoner swap deal with the Palestinian Resistance movement.

The movement demands an end to Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip in return for any prisoner swap with Tel Aviv.

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas mediated by the US, Qatar, and Egypt have failed to agree on a permanent ceasefire deal.

So far, efforts by the three countries to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas have been hampered by Netanyahu’s rejection of Hamas’ call to halt hostilities.

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Ongoing Genocide

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 39,090 Palestinians have been killed, and 90,147 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(PC, Anadolu)