Netanyahu sees Iran outcome opening door to Gaza hostage return
FILE PHOTO: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement during a visit to the site of the Weizmann Institute of Science, which was hit by an Iranian missile barrage, in the central city of Rehovot, Israel June 20, 2025. JACK GUEZ/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
By Howard Goller
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday the 12-day war with Iran had created opportunities for Israel, and the first was the return of hostages held in Gaza by Palestinian militants who attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
His remarks, coupled with the Jerusalem District Court's postponement of his testimony this week in his long-running corruption trial, gave rise to speculation that progress may be made to end the Gaza conflict and secure the hostages' release.
The court accepted on Sunday Netanyahu's request for the delay, citing classified diplomatic and security grounds. U.S. President Donald Trump had suggested on Saturday the trial could interfere with the Israeli leader's ability to negotiate.
Israel's military Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said on Friday the war in Iran, which ended on June 24, could help advance Israeli objectives against the Iranian-backed Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli public radio Kan said Israel's security cabinet had met on Sunday evening and would meet again on Monday. Israel's strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, a confidant of Netanyahu's, was expected on Monday at the White House for talks on Iran and Gaza, Israeli media said.
On a Sunday visit to a security facility of Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, Netanyahu said: "I want to inform you that as you probably know, many opportunities have opened up now following this victory, many opportunities."
"First of all, to rescue the hostages. Of course we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both tasks," he said, according to a statement issued by his office.
Israeli advocates for the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, known as the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters, said his statement prioritizing the hostages was a first.
"The families of the hostages welcome the fact that after 20 months, the return of the hostages has finally been designated as the top priority by the prime minister," they said.
"This is a very important statement that must translate into a single comprehensive deal to bring back all 50 hostages and end the fighting in Gaza," their statement said. Of the 50 hostages, only 20 are believed to be alive.
Trump said on Saturday that Netanyahu was "right now" negotiating a deal with Hamas, though neither leader provided details, and officials on both sides have voiced skepticism over prospects for a ceasefire soon.
The U.S. has proposed a 60-day ceasefire and a release of half the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the remains of other Palestinians. Hamas would release the remaining hostages once a permanent ceasefire was in place.
On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza before intensified fighting against Hamas.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group's outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.
Israel says it can only end the war if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and took 251 captives back to Gaza in their attack on Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Diplomat
an hour ago
- The Diplomat
China's Bet on Iran: What Now?
One can imagine the shock at No. 2 Chaoyangmen South Boulevard, Beijing, the home of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, upon hearing the news that in the early hours of June 22 Iranian time, the United States had attacked, in extraordinary fashion, the three key sites of Iran's nuclear enrichment program. It was only four years ago that China inked a $400 billion, 25-yearlong strategic partnership with Iran, focusing on trade, investment, energy, infrastructure, military cooperation, and key for China, a ready and steady source of oil, presumably at preferential pricing. Yet now, China's strategic partner has just seen its nuclear enrichment program – which could lead to a nuclear bomb – attacked. What must be worst for China is that Iran didn't even see the B-2 bombers and their bunker-busting payloads coming. From a Chinese perspective, this is not just a loss of face for Iran, but also a loss of face for China. Beijing does not like to be seen backing a losing hand, much less depending upon it. It was only just over two years ago that China used, and then nominally won, a great deal of political capital when it successfully finalized a rapprochement between long-time foes Iran and Saudi Arabia. China has limited experience in engaging in such high-level international diplomacy, much less with success. However, it turns out that the real meat of the negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia took place over several rounds beginning in 2021 in Iraq and Oman. It was only in the final days of the negotiations, the United States Institute of Peace reported, that China was brought in as the closer, and was magnanimously given the win. As the institute related, 'The two regional rivals have conducted talks in Oman and five rounds in Iraq in the past two years. They could have chosen either country to get to the finish-line, but instead chose China' – shortly after Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia. Notably, China has been all but absent on the diplomatic stage during a true crisis involving Iran. Since the United States bombed Iran's nuclear facilities, China has made several statements criticizing and condemning the U.S. actions, and questioning U.S. credibility going forward. The remarks from China, however, have been predictably boilerplate, lacking in either force or conviction. The Chinese Consulate General in New York put out a statement on June 22 saying that 'China strongly condemns the U.S. attacks on Iran and bombing of nuclear facilities under the safeguards of the IAEA. The actions of the U.S. seriously violate the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter and international law, and have exacerbated tensions in the Middle East.' The statement went on to call for a ceasefire, to keep civilians safe, and the start of dialogue. 'China,' the statement said, 'stands ready to work with the international community to pool efforts together and uphold justice, and work for restoring peace and stability in the Middle East.' Why the boiler-plate language from China? Why the reiteration of the same old tropes? Where, if China is truly Iran's friend and strategic partner, is the outrage? China's foreign policy is still on training wheels. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lacks the real-world experience with and exposure to the rest of the world to be able to successfully read the room or respond to it appropriately – at least at the rapid-fire pace necessitated by a crisis. China's near silence on the dramatic, power map changing events of June 22 expose not only its discomfort with the U.S. strikes, but also its inability to respond quickly with new ideas and leadership of its own. China and Iran find themselves on the same side of certain historical and cultural issues. To the Chinese, even the very idea of monarchy can cause a person to curl one's lip in distaste. China overthrew its monarchy in the early 20th century, and the CCP has been very successful since in teaching its citizens that the evils of emperors, and the greed of imperialists, is what kept China poor and backward for so many centuries. Iran has followed a similar trajectory since Islamist revolutionaries overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. It took decades, but finally, and often one piece at a time, the United States admitted to having collaborated with the United Kingdom to remove Iran's democratically-elected leader, which took place on August 19, 1953. Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was the victim of a plot to secure Iran's oil for British interests, and that, as Lapham's Quarterly recounted, put him squarely in the cross hairs of 'the world's preeminent postwar powers.' The coup – which didn't work the first time, but did the second – put the Iranian monarchy in the person of the Shah firmly back in power for the next 25 years. But it also made the U.S., and the West in general, a prime target for displays of Iranian nationalism in the post-Shah era. This is another point China and Iran have in common: their rulers both find political capital among their relative domestic audiences in denouncing previous foreign involvement in their countries. The fuel that fires much of both China's and Iran's expressed anger and resentment toward the West in general also forges a bond of shared victimhood that is a common trait among autocratically-led countries. Against that backdrop, it is notable that, as Iran quite literally came under attack by the hated Americans, China sat on the sidelines, only offering some empty words of support. Indeed, Iran's foreign minster hurried to Russia – not China – in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. bombing in a quest for support. Tehran apparently understands all too well Beijing's limitations.
Nikkei Asia
5 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Trump tariff tracker: the latest on US levies affecting Asia
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One after departing early from the G7 summit in Canada to return to Washington, June 17. © Reuters GRACE LI TOKYO -- U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on nations around the world in the first months of his second term to revive American manufacturing, rattling Asian economies that rely heavily on exports for prosperity. The unilateral U.S. moves -- which include country-by-country blanket levies known as "reciprocal" tariffs, and duties on specific items such as steel and automobiles -- are causing major disruptions to the global economy, where close links in supply chains have become the norm for doing business.
Nikkei Asia
6 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Just when Trump thought he was out, Iran pulls him back in
A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is shown at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, before the Operation Midnight Hammer attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. © Reuters Richard Heydarian is a senior lecturer at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines and author of "The Indo-Pacific: Trump, China and the New Struggle for Global Mastery." The "12 Day War" between Israel and Iran ended as violently and abruptly as it started. Large flames due to massive aerial bombardments illuminated the night sky in Tehran, while Iran responded with a barrage of missiles that landed in southern Israel in the final hours of the war. Both sides grappled with heavy damage, including to residential areas and critical infrastructure, and unprecedented casualties, including the deaths of hundreds of civilians across Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump played the unexpected roles of mediating and enforcing the eventual ceasefire between the archenemies.
