An acute observer of current events cannot ignore certain signs that link them and reveal what lies beneath. Those signs require some analysis to unearth their significance. For example, Netanyahu constantly reiterates that the aims of the war on Gaza are to eliminate Hamas and secure the release of the hostages taken during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on 7 October 2023. Yet, Israel finally managed to track down and kill Yahya Sinwar. Before that, it assassinated Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Tehran. Likewise, it managed to pinpoint the whereabouts of Mohamed Deif in Gaza and Fuad Shukr and Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon and take them out. So how do we explain the Israeli occupation’s year-long failure to locate the hostages, which Netanyahu repeatedly claims is a top priority for his government?  

The truth is that freeing the hostages has never been a priority for him, and it is certainly not one of the aims of the war. The families of the hostages are painfully aware of this and the fact that their loved ones have been turned into a pretext for prolonging the war. Once the hostages are released, Netanyahu would lose the last shred of morally acceptable justification for continuing the war before global public opinion. 

This is why the families of the hostages have formed an organisation dedicated to focusing attention on the need to release the hostages and to keep up the pressure on the Netanyahu government by shaming it for its callousness to the fate of their loved ones and even taking it to task for killing some of them in military operations.

Some regional parties, such as Egypt, have made strenuous efforts to promote a serious ceasefire agreement that would allow for a hostage-prisoner exchange deal. If the release of the hostages were truly a priority for the Israeli government, it would have responded positively to these initiatives months ago. Instead, Netanyahu has evaded and undermined them at every turn, so as not to lose his excuse to keep the death machine running. 

This has led to mass demonstrations in Israel, led by the families of the hostages who are frustrated and incensed by his cynical exploitation of the hostage issue to avoid a resolution to the war. Beneath this lies another truth which is that Netanyahu’s aim in perpetuating the war is not to eliminate Hamas but to empty Gaza of all Palestinians to realise ambitions that he and members of his government have made very clear on many occasions.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly