Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a ceasefire in Gaza, declaring “this is a time for war”, as he hailed the rescue of a hostage as evidence that Israel’s military offensive can free Israeli captives while delivering crushing blows to Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister congratulated the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and security agency Shin Bet for freeing Ori Megidish, an army private, but Israeli joy was tempered by a Hamas video of three other captives that remain in captivity.
Megidish was freed on Sunday night, three weeks after she was abducted with more than 220 other hostages, as Israel escalated its ground operation in Gaza. After a medical check declared her healthy she was reunited with her family, giving Israelis a rare image of joy.
Netanyahu said the army’s advance through Gaza opened opportunities to free hostages, which Hamas would do only under pressure, he told a news conference. “This creates pressure. We’re committed to getting all the hostages back home. We think that this method stands a chance.”
Calls for a ceasefire meant asking Israel to surrender to terrorism and barbarism, the prime minister said. “That will not happen. The Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war.” He called Hamas militants “monsters” and said Israel would continue to pursue them.
The rescue of Megidish bolstered the government’s claim that it could simultaneously wage war and free hostages. However, many hostage relatives favour accepting a Hamas offer to swap them for about 5,000 Palestinians, including Islamist militants, in Israeli prisons.
The Israeli government has rejected the offer. The strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, said if there was a proposal to release the hostages the government would consider a “temporary pause” in hostilities to extract them safely.
Hamas’s military wing ratcheted up the pressure by releasing a video of three hostages – Danielle Aloni, Rimon Kirsht and Elena Trupanov – who were kidnapped on 7 October during a Hamas onslaught that killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel.
The accompanying video description said: “A number of Zionist prisoners held by al-Qassam send a message to Netanyahu and the Zionist government.”
It is thought likely that the three women would have appeared in the video under duress. The Geneva conventions prohibit the taking of hostages.
The 76-second clip showed the women seated together in plastic chairs in front of a tiled wall, facing the camera. They bore no visible signs of injury.
Only Aloni, seated in the centre, spoke. Gazing directly at the camera, she said they had been in captivity for 23 days, suggesting the video was filmed on Sunday or Monday, as the death toll in Gaza from Israel’s bombardment passed 8,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Addressing Netanyahu directly, Aloni accused Netanyahu’s administration of leaving her community defenceless during the Hamas attack. “We are getting punished for your political, national neglect,” she said. “Nobody came. Nobody heard us.”
She said there was supposed to be a ceasefire. “We are innocent citizens. Citizens who pay taxes to the state of Israel. You want to kill us all. You want to kill us all using the IDF.”
She pleaded for a prisoner exchange. “Let their citizens go, let their prisoners go. Free us. Free all of us. Let us return to our families now!” At the end she screamed “now” several times. Trupanov and Kirsht remained silent and largely avoided looking at the camera.
Netanyahu called the video “cruel psychological propaganda” and sent a message to the women: “Our hearts are with you and the other captives.”
Aloni was kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz with her six-year-old daughter, Emilia, and the family of her twin sister Sharon Aloni Konio.
At a press conference in Tel Aviv her father, Remus Aloni, said his heart “nearly stopped beating” when he saw her on television. He appealed to the Red Cross to visit the hostages and asked Qatar, which has mediated with Hamas, to help bring them home. “I’d like to say to Danielle and Sharon – girls, we see you. We love you. We hear you. We are thinking about you every minute, every second.”
The mother of Kirsht said she worried that her daughter appeared without her glasses. “She needs her glasses. She cannot see anything.” She appealed to Netanyahu to do everything possible to free the hostages.
Earlier on Monday relatives gathered in Jerusalem for an “empty beds” installation that placed 239 beds and bassinets – representing the estimated number of hostages – at Safra Square.
Yael Moshe, 48, held a placard of her mother, Adina Moshe, 72, who was abducted from a kibbutz. “She has a heart condition but a strong spirit,” said Moshe. She worried about the IDF offensive in Gaza. “My stomach hurts. I don’t want to think about it.”
Moshe favoured emptying Israel’s prisons of Palestinians to get the hostages back. “Whatever it takes, do it. After that the government can do what it wants.”
Relatives of other hostages also endorsed a swap, saying once the hostages were freed Israel would have a free hand to strike Hamas. “Let’s get them out, then we can take revenge for the massacre,” said Eyal Mor.
