“The Israeli authorities have said that up to 20 hostages in Gaza are believed to be alive. The bodies of 30 others, they say, are also being held in the territory.”

Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Military Takeover of Gaza

“After nearly two years of war, Israel says about 20 surviving hostages and the bodies of roughly 30 more are still in Gaza.”

Israelis Join Nationwide Rallies to Call for Release of Hostages

“After nearly two years of Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas, the Gaza Strip has been largely leveled and parts of it have been brought to the brink of famine. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gazan health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox. For Mr. Netanyahu, “it doesn’t matter if these steps — the war in Gaza and the quasi-annexation in the West Bank — would damage Israel’s relations with the Arab world,” said Michael Milshtein, an Israeli analyst and former military intelligence officer. He said both developments also showed that Mr. Netanyahu believes he can continue to depend on American support, even as Arab and European nations sharply condemn Israel’s actions. World leaders quickly condemned the announcements on Gaza City. “The military offensive in Gaza that Israel is preparing can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said on social media. France is among a growing number of countries that, frustrated with Israel’s war in Gaza, have declared in recent months that they will recognize a Palestinian state at the annual U.N. General Assembly in September. While the United States has for years endorsed a so-called two-state solution, it has blocked recent efforts to recognize full Palestinian statehood under current conditions. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Prospects for a functional Palestinian state have been dim for years, and its boundaries have never been clear. Mr. Netanyahu has not publicly shared his position on the new cease-fire proposal, which Hamas has accepted and was announced this week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. But a statement that his office released on Wednesday night seemed to signal that the military operation was soon to begin. Mr. Smotrich has led a pressure campaign by hard-liners who have threatened to quit Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition, and potentially bring down his government, if the proposed cease-fire deal was pursued. Orit Strock, a minister in Mr. Netanyahu’s government and a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party, warned the prime minister in a radio interview about accepting a deal that did not defeat Hamas and put “the value of returning the hostages above the national interest.” “This will push the country into a horrible abyss,” Ms. Strock told Army Radio. “So it is very possible that we will say we will not be prepared to lend our hand to the government.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT The new proposal has been described as a “partial deal” that would not immediately release all hostages and would postpone discussions about ending the war, including the issue of disarming Hamas. As many as 20 hostages are still believed to be alive, according to the Israeli authorities. The bodies of 30 others, they say, are also being held in Gaza.”

With Moves on West Bank and Gaza City, Israel Defies Global Outcry

“As many as 20 hostages are still believed to be alive, according to the Israeli authorities. The bodies of 30 others, they say, are also being held in Gaza.”

With Moves on West Bank and Gaza City, Israel Defies Global Outcry

“Hamas also still holds about 20 living hostages seized during the Oct. 7 attacks, in addition to the bodies of around 28 others.”

Over 15 Killed in Gaza City, One Day After Israel Ends Daily Pauses for Aid

“Israel says that about 20 are still alive.Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.“No piecemeal deals; that doesn’t work,” Mr. Witkoff said, according to an audio recording of part of the meeting published by the Ynet Hebrew news site. He said there was a plan around shifting the negotiation toward an “all or nothing” deal.He did not offer details and there have been no obvious signs of progress since.The last cease-fire, reached in January, collapsed in March when Israel went back to fighting in Gaza. In the months since then, Israel and the United States, along with the other mediating countries, Qatar and Egypt, have pressed Hamas to accept a framework for another gradual deal.That push called for a 60-day cease-fire during which about half the living hostages and the remains of several others would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Under the plan, negotiations would also start immediately for a permanent cessation of hostilities. At the time, Israeli officials described that proposal as the only offer on the table.ImageIsraeli forces near the border with northern Gaza last month. The Israeli government switched gears recently and now says that it wants only a comprehensive deal that would free all the hostages and end the war.Credit...Elke Scholiers/Getty ImagesBy mid-August, when Hamas, under pressure, had broadly accepted a deal along those lines, Israel suddenly moved the goal posts. While Mr. Netanyahu has not yet publicly ruled out a phased deal altogether, his ministers have described that approach as no longer relevant, and the government has not officially engaged with the Hamas response.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT“There isn’t an option any longer for a partial deal,” Miki Zohar, a minister from Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, said on Israeli television on Saturday. “The only thing on the agenda is ending the war, along with the return of all the hostages, of course, and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip,” he added.A comprehensive deal will be much more complicated to achieve, if at all.According to Shira Efron, an expert in Israel policy at the nonprofit RAND Corporation, “It means more stalling and prolonging” of the war.The Israeli military has already been in Gaza City, in the early months of Israel’s ground invasion of the enclave that began in 2023.Ms. Efron said that Mr. Trump might think that this time, the military operation could be “quick and clean.” But, she added, it could also be “dirty and long.”AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe question of which kind of deal to aim for — gradual or comprehensive — presents a serious dilemma for Israel’s political and military leaders, and shreds the emotions of the hostages’ relatives and of many citizens. A partial deal that would see only about half the living hostages released in the first phase would mean choosing who gets released and who gets left behind. There would be no guarantee that negotiations for the next phase would succeed where they failed before.ImageDemonstrators, including families of hostages held in Gaza, at a rally in Tel Aviv on Tuesday calling for an end to the war and the release of all captives.Credit...Amit Elkayam for The New York TimesAnd many Israelis say they believe that Hamas will never relinquish all of the hostages, an action that would leave the militant group exposed.“It is not clear that Hamas would want to give up on its insurance policy,” said Shalom Ben Hanan, a former official with Shin Bet, the Israeli domestic security agency.On the other hand, images released by the captors of weak and emaciated hostages have underlined the urgency of the hostages’ situation, leading many Israelis to ask whether it would be better at least to get 10 out alive sooner rather than to try to negotiate a more complicated comprehensive deal.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT“There is no good answer,” Mr. Ben Hanan said.Israel’s planned takeover of Gaza City poses risks for all sides.The Gaza Strip is already gripped by a severe humanitarian crisis, and a report by a panel of food security experts has found famine in parts of the territory, a designation that Israel refutes.The military plan, expected to displace nearly a million residents of Gaza City, would most likely lead to more Palestinian deaths and destruction, and could endanger the lives of hostages held in the area.Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza has already drawn severe international criticism, including from some of its closest allies.ImageFleeing Gaza City toward the southern Gaza Valley on Monday.Credit...Saher Alghorra for The New York TimesAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTOn Monday, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a leading group of academic experts on the topic, declared that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza met the legal definition of genocide.A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced the conclusion as “an embarrassment to the legal profession,” adding in a statement that it was “entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others.”More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including about 18,000 children and minors, according to Gaza health officials, whose toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.The Hamas-led attacks of October 2023 killed about 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to the Israeli government. About 250 others were taken to Gaza, and 48 remain there, either living or dead.Some analysts have presented the plans for an assault on Gaza City as a threat intended to pressure Hamas into agreeing to Israel’s conditions for ending the war as much as an operational certainty. If an agreement is reached, so that thinking goes, the plans could be scrapped at any time.ImageA funeral outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday for those killed after an Israeli strike.Credit...Jehad Alshrafi/Associated PressAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT”

Israel’s Push for a Permanent Gaza Deal May Mean a Longer War, Experts Say

“Israel believes that about 20 captives are still alive out of a total of 48 who remain in Gaza.”

Netanyahu Faces High-Level Opposition to His Stance on Gaza Truce

“Figures vary slightly, but it is believed that 54 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 31 are believed to be dead.”

Israel is accused of the gravest war crimes in Gaza