Israel still not doing enough to reach hostage release deal with Hamas

Speaking at a press conference at the White House on September 2, US President Joe Biden expressed disappointment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that the Tel Aviv leader has not made enough efforts to reach an agreement to release hostages being held by the Hamas Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip.

President Biden made the statement after a meeting with US negotiators on the hostage release deal, which was convened after the Israeli army discovered the bodies of six hostages in the Gaza Strip on August 31, including an American-Israeli.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and several other senior US officials also attended the meeting.

For months, the United States, along with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, have been trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas. Negotiations have been held alternately in Qatar and Egypt, but have so far yielded no results.

In that context, the discovery of six hostage bodies by the Israeli army in a tunnel in Gaza last weekend is expected to continue to cast a shadow over the negotiation process, while putting greater pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu's administration to quickly reach an agreement to rescue the hostages.

In related developments, tens of thousands of people in Israel took to the streets on September 1 to put pressure on the government, while the country's largest union called for a strike, forcing an Israeli court to ban the strike.

Relatives and supporters of the hostages accuse Prime Minister Netanyahu's government of not doing enough to bring those held captive back home.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas announced that it had issued new guidelines on guarding prisoners and hostages in case the Israeli army approaches the location. Both Hamas and Israel are blaming each other for the deaths of six hostages in Gaza.

The spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, Abu Obeida, said Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli army bore full responsibility for the deaths of the six people because they had deliberately obstructed the prisoner exchange agreements.

On the Israeli side, Foreign Minister Israel Katz blamed Hamas for the incident and warned that Tel Aviv would respond strongly after the incident.