Gaza, Hamas tries to blame the deaths of the hostages on Netanyahu –

Hamas has said that the six prisoners whose bodies were found in Gaza would still be alive if Israel accepted a ceasefire deal. In an interview with Al Jazeera, a leader of the Islamist movement, Khalil al-Hayya, argued that Hamas for its part had shown flexibility in the negotiations, including by reducing the number of Palestinian prisoners whose release it was demanding and by accepting the proposal presented by Biden and supported by the UN Security Council. But Netanyahu responded to Hamas’ flexibility with evasive measures and new conditions. These included refusing to release elderly prisoners serving life sentences and insisting that Israeli forces remain in the so-called Netzarim corridor in central Gaza and the Philadelphia corridor on the Palestinian enclave’s border with Egypt. Al-Hayya stressed that there would be no deal without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Netzarim and Philadelphia corridors.

Meanwhile, Israel’s main trade union called a nationwide strike after soldiers recovered the bodies of six hostages killed in the Strip. Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities late on Monday to protest against the government and demand a deal to release the hostages. The hostages killed in Gaza were among 251 kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war, 97 of whom remain captive. Some were released during a week-long truce in November, but relatives say not enough has been done to free those still held. The campaign group Hostages and Missing Families Forum said a “negotiated agreement for the return of the hostages” was urgently needed.