Israel mourns dead hostages as doubts grow over Gaza truce plan

RAFAH, Palestine: Israel on Tuesday mourned four captives reported dead in Gaza by the army amid growing doubts and international pressure over a plan for a ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.

In the besieged Palestinian territory, Israeli strikes continued early Tuesday, particularly in Bureij in central Gaza where local hospital sources reported several deaths.

In northern Israel, firefighters and troops were battling forest blazes after rocket fire from neighbouring Lebanon, with the border area the scene of near-daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas, since the start of the war in Gaza nearly eight months ago.

Israel’s military on Monday announced the deaths in Gaza of four hostages seized during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, naming them as Chaim Perry, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Nadav Popplewell.

Their bodies were still in the hands of Hamas, it added.

Cooper, 84, Metzger, 80, and Perry, 80, were abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz while Israeli-British citizen Popplewell, 51, was kidnapped from the Nirim kibbutz.

British foreign minister David Cameron said he was “greatly saddened to hear about the death” of Popplewell, adding: “we reiterate our demand for Hamas to send all hostages home”.

“They should have returned alive to their country and their families,” the Hostages Families Forum said.

Intense pressure

Netanyahu, a hawkish veteran leading a fragile hard-right coalition government, is under intense domestic pressure from multiple sides.

Relatives and supporters of hostages have staged mass protests demanding a truce deal — but his far-right coalition allies are threatening to bring down the government if he agrees to that.

Biden on Friday presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the bloody conflict, free all hostages and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power.

However, Netanyahu’s office stressed that the war would continue until all of Israel’s “goals are achieved”, including the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.

The G7 group of countries said in a statement its leaders “fully endorse” the deal pushed by Biden, and called on Hamas to accept it.

Hamas on Friday said it viewed Biden’s outline “positively”, but has since made no official comment on stalled negotiations, while mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have not announced any new talks.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt issued a statement on Monday backing the latest diplomatic effort.

In northern Israel, firefighters were battling intense forest fires that broke out shortly after rocket and drone strikes from neighbouring Lebanon, forcing the partial evacuation of Kiryat Shmona.

An AFP photographer in the northeastern town saw intense blazes engulfing parts of the area bordering Lebanon, the scene of near-daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militant group on the sidelines of the war in Gaza.