Israel Holds off on Approving Hostage Deal

Stand for Israel  |  January 16, 2025

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(Photo: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Though those involved believe the agreement is still likely to move forward, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office says that Hamas is “reneging on the understandings and creating a last-minute crisis that is preventing an agreement”:

Israel was still holding off on Thursday afternoon from officially declaring that a ceasefire-hostage release deal announced a day earlier by mediators had been reached with Hamas, insisting that details remained to be finalized and that Hamas was throwing last-minute wrenches into the negotiations.

Mossad chief David Barnea, the head of Israel’s negotiating team who was dispatched to Doha on Saturday night, was still in the Qatari capital as of Thursday afternoon, according to an official familiar with the talks.

Both the US and Qatar — who brokered the agreement — proclaimed on Wednesday evening that a deal had been reached to end the 15-month war in Gaza triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held off on publicly commenting, saying he would only do so when the terms were finalized.

Please pray that Israel’s leaders will be guided by God’s wisdom, and that true and lasting peace and security will come to Israel. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you be secure’” (Psalm 122:6).