Gaza hospital chief held in ‘inhumane’ conditions by Israel: lawyer
Gaza hospital chief held in ‘inhumane’ conditions by Israel: lawyer/node/2597231/middle-east
Gaza hospital chief held in ‘inhumane’ conditions by Israel: lawyer
Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, is treated by colleagues for his injuries following an Israeli strike that according to the civil defence in Gaza hit the medical compound in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, late on November 23, 2024. (AFP)
Gaza hospital chief held in ‘inhumane’ conditions by Israel: lawyer
Abu Safiya was subjected to interrogations involving beatings, mistreatment and torture.
In January, rights group Amnesty International demanded Abu Safiya’s release, citing witness testimonies describing “the horrifying reality” in Israeli prisons.
Updated 22 sec ago
AFP
NAZARETH: The director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital who was detained by Israeli forces in December is being held in “inhumane” conditions by Israel and subjected to “physical and psychological intimidation,” his lawyer told AFP.
Hussam Abu Safiya, a 52-year-old paediatrician, rose to prominence last year by posting about the dire conditions in his besieged hospital in Beit Lahia during a major Israeli offensive.
On December 27, Israeli forces began an assault on the facility which they labelled a Hamas “terrorist center,” and arrested dozens of medical staff including Abu Safiya.
The military accused him of being a “Hamas operative.”
Abu Safiya’s lawyer, Gheed Qassem, was able to visit the doctor on March 19 in Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.
“He is suffering greatly, he is exhausted from the torture, the pressure and the humiliation he has endured to force him to confess to acts he did not commit,” said Qassem who met an AFP correspondent in Nazareth.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment from AFP about the conditions in which Abu Safiya is being held.
After initially spending two weeks in the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel’s Negev desert, Abu Safiya was transferred to Ofer, where Israel keeps hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
In Sde Teiman, Abu Safiya was subjected to interrogations “involving beatings, mistreatment and torture,” Qassem said, before he was transferred to a cramped cell in Ofer for 25 days, where he was also subjected to questioning.
The Israeli authorities have designated the medic an “illegal combatant” for an “unlimited period of time,” Qassem said, and his case has been designated confidential by the military, meaning Abu Safiya’s defense cannot access the files.
She denounced what she said were restrictions imposed on legal visits, which have prevented lawyers from informing detainees about “the war, the date, the time or their geographic location.”
Her meeting with Abu Safiya, which took place under tight surveillance, lasted for only 17 minutes, she said.
Adopted in 2002, Israel’s law concerning “illegal combatants” permits the detention of suspected members of “hostile forces” outside of normal legal frameworks.
In January, rights group Amnesty International demanded Abu Safiya’s release, citing witness testimonies describing “the horrifying reality” in Israeli prisons, where Palestinian detainees are subjected to “systematic acts of torture and other mistreatment.”
A social media campaign using the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya has brought together health care organizations, celebrities and UN leaders.
That includes the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who demanded Abu Safiya’s release in a post on X.
Qassem warned that her client’s health was “very worrying.”
“He is suffering from arterial tension, cardiac arrhythmia and vision problems,” she said, adding “he has lost 20 kilos in two months and fractured four ribs during interrogations, without receiving proper medical care.”
The doctor remains calm, she said, but “wonders what crime he has committed” to be subjected to “such inhumane conditions.”
According to the lawyer, Abu Safiya’s jailers are demanding that he confess to having operated on members of Hamas or Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but he has refused to do so and denies the accusations.
The doctor insists that he is just a paediatrician, “and everything he did was out of a moral, professional and human duty toward the patients and the wounded,” Qassem said.
Since October 7, 2023, around 5,000 Gazans have been arrested by Israel, and some were subsequently released in exchange for hostages held in Gaza.
In general, they are accused of “belonging to a terrorist organization” or of posing “a threat to Israel’s security,” the lawyer said.
Qassem said that a number of detainees are being held without charge or trial and that their lawyers often did not know where their clients were during the first months of the war.
Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia prepares for next big quake
Updated 42 sec ago
AFP
Istanbul: The Hagia Sophia of Istanbul is no stranger to change — through the centuries the city’s architectural jewel has gone from church to mosque to museum, back to mosque again. But the latest renovation aims not only to restore the wonders of the 1,488-year gem, but to ensure it survives the next earthquake to hit the ancient city. From afar, its dome, shimmering rock and delicate minarets appear to watch over Istanbul, as they have for centuries. As visitors get closer however, they see scaffolding covering its eastern facade and one of the minarets. While “the renovation of course breaks a little bit the atmosphere of the appearance from the outside” and the “scaffolding takes away the aesthetic of the monument... renovation is a must,” said Abdullah Yilmaz, a guide. Hagia Sophia, a World Heritage Site and Turkiye’s most visited landmark, “constantly has problems,” Hasan Firat Diker, an architecture professor working on the restoration, told AFP. That is why it has undergone numerous piecemeal reconstructions over the centuries, he added.
’Global’ makeover’ The current makeover is the first time the site will undergo a “global restoration,” including the dome, walls and minarets, he said. When it was first completed in AD 537, on the same spot where previous churches had stood, the Hagia Sophia became known as a shining example of the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, which ruled the city known as Constantinople at the time. It served as a church until the fall of the city to the Ottomans in 1453, when it became a mosque. In 1935, Mustafa Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkiye who forcibly remade the country into a secular one, turned the building into a museum. It remained as such until 2020, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a practicing Muslim who came to power at the head of an Islamist-rooted party, turned it back into a mosque.
Next big quake Like the residents of this historic city, the Hagia Sophia has not only had to contend with the whims of its rulers — it faces the constant danger from earthquakes that have regularly struck the metropolis, the last major one in 1999. Like many buildings in the city of 16 million, which lies just kilometers from an active seismic fault line, Hagia Sophia does not meet building earthquake standards. Its dome collapsed in an earthquake in 558 and the building has been damaged in other quakes that have hit the city since. So the main goal of the restoration under way is to “reinforce the building against the next big earthquake” so that the ancient structure “survives the event with the least damage possible,” said Ahmet Gulec, a member of the scientific committee supervising the works. For the moment specialists are studying the dome to determine how best to both reinforce and restore it, Diker said. The interior is for now free of any scaffolding. But eventually four huge pillars will be erected inside to support a platform from where specialists will restore the dome’s paintings and mosaics. “Once you’re inside... it’s perfect,” marvelled Ana Delgado, a 49-year-old tourist from Mexico as the hum of laughter, conversation and movement filled the building following afternoon prayers. “It’s magic,” chimed in her friend, Elias Erduran, from the Dominican Republic.
Millions of visitors Hagia Sophia saw 7.7 million visitors stream through its spacious interior last year. Around 2.1 million of them are foreign tourists, many of whom pay 25 euros for an entry ticket, generating millions of euros annually. Officials hope the inside pillars will not deter visitors from coming during the works, which are expected to last for several years. Officials have not said how much the renovation is expected to cost. “The objective is that the visits and prayers continue” during the works, Gulec said. And even if some visitors are disappointed not to have witnessed the building in all its glory, the important thing “is that one day my children will also be able to admire Saint Sophia,” said Yana Galitskaya, a 35-year-old visitor from Russia.
Video footage shows fighter jets taking off to launch attacks against Houthi militia
Updated 16 April 2025
AP
DUBAI: A second US aircraft carrier has arrived off the coast of Yemen as Washington ramps up its attacks on Houthi militia targets, according to new satellite images.
The USS Carl Vinson is operating in key shipping routes northeast of Socotra island in the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden.
The carrier is accompanied by the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton and two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, the USS Sterett and the USS William P. Lawrence.
The US sent the Vinson to back up the carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which has been launching airstrikes against the Houthis since March 15.
Video footage released by the US Navy showed the Vinson preparing ordinance and launching F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets off its deck. US Central Command also posted videos saying there had been “24/7 strikes” on the Houthis by the two carriers.
Lebanon assures Jordan of solidarity after foiled threats to national security
After arrest of 16 suspects ‘planning acts of chaos and sabotage,’ Beirut is ‘fully prepared’ to cooperate by sharing info about 2 who reportedly trained in Lebanon, says PM Nawaf Salam
Palestinian Authority condemns the ‘terrorist plots’ and says ‘attempts to target and weaken Jordan are targeting and weakening Palestine’
Updated 16 April 2025
Arab News
LONDON: Lebanon’s prime minister expressed solidarity with Jordan following the arrest on Tuesday of several suspects accused of involvement in plots to compromise Jordanian national security.
During a telephone conversation with his counterpart, Jafar Hassan, Nawaf Salam pledged Lebanon's full cooperation in efforts to tackle threats to Jordan’s security and stability.
Earlier, the Jordanian General Intelligence Department arrested 16 people suspected of “planning acts of chaos and sabotage,” the Jordan News Agency reported. Two of the suspects, Abdullah Hisham and Muath Al-Ghanem, were believed to have visited Lebanon to coordinate with a senior leader in the Muslim Brotherhood and receive training, the agency added.
Salam said Lebanese authorities were “fully prepared” to cooperate with their Jordanian counterparts by providing information about individuals suspected of involvement in the plots who received training in Lebanon, the country’s National News Agency reported.
“Lebanon refuses to be a base or a launching pad for any action that would threaten the security of any brotherly or friendly country,” the prime minister added.
In a message posted on social media platform X, Lebanese MP Fouad Makhzoum said the case affects Lebanon’s relations with Arab and other foreign countries, and urged the government to clarify the circumstances surrounding the suspects’ training.
“All solidarity with Jordan in the face of malicious attempts to undermine its stability,” he added.
During a telephone call with Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, Lebanon’s former prime minister, Najib Mikati, similarly expressed his solidarity with Amman.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the “terrorist plots” and said they represented an attempt to undermine national security. The president’s office said “attempts to target and weaken Jordan are targeting and weakening Palestine,” the Palestinian News Agency reported.
What happened to the Palestinian doctors detained by Israeli forces in Gaza?
Palestinian medical workers recount abuse, starvation, and torture in Israeli detention facilities
Rights groups say Israeli attack on health infrastructure violate international humanitarian law
Updated 15 April 2025
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: Rights groups say Israel is deliberately targeting Gaza’s health system, with at least 160 Palestinian medics currently detained having been seized from hospitals. Recently released doctors have described targeted attacks and systematic abuse.
Healthcare Workers Watch, a Palestinian watchdog, reported in February that 162 medical staff are being held by Israeli authorities, including 20 doctors and some of Gaza’s most senior physicians.
The whereabouts of 24 healthcare workers are unknown after they were forcibly removed from hospitals during Israel’s military operation, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, following the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that triggered the conflict.
Muath Alser, director of Healthcare Workers Watch, said the detention of medical workers represented a violation of international law, which had exacerbated civilian suffering by stripping Palestinians of essential medical expertise and care.
“Israel’s targeting of the healthcare workforce in this manner is having a devastating impact on the provision of healthcare to Palestinians, with extensive suffering, countless preventable deaths, and the effective eradication of whole medical specialities,” Alser told The Guardian.
Israeli soldiers stand by a truck packed with bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees in Gaza on Dec. 8, 2023. (AP)
The destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure has been widely documented. A December 2024 report by the UN Human Rights Office revealed that the enclave’s healthcare system had been brought to the brink of collapse by repeated raids.
Hospitals have been damaged — both directly and indirectly by Israeli airstrikes and combat operations — putting staff and patients at risk. More than 1,000 health workers have been killed, according to the UN.
On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed parts of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Gaza City’s last fully functional hospital. Witnesses said the strike destroyed the intensive care and surgery departments.
Israel said it targeted the hospital because it contained a “command and control center used by Hamas,” but did not provide any evidence. Governments worldwide condemned the attack, including Saudi Arabia, which described the bombing as a “heinous crime.”
IN NUMBERS
1,057+ Palestinian health workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
25% Gaza’s wounded with life-changing injuries who require ongoing rehabilitation.
(Source: OCHA)
Amid growing concerns over Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law, which is designed to protect hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and their staff, Gaza’s health sector is struggling to meet the overwhelming demand.
According to the World Health Organization, just 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remained partially operational as of January, with fewer than 1,800 beds available for tens of thousands of patients.
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza, has warned that “the health sector is being systematically dismantled,” citing shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel.
Since October 2023, at least 50,900 Palestinians have been killed and more than 115,688 injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities. As of September 2024, a quarter of the wounded had suffered life-changing injuries.
The WHO also verified that 297 healthcare workers in Gaza had been detained by the Israeli military since October 2023 but had no details on who was still being held. Healthcare Workers Watch reports that 339 have been detained.
The whereabouts of 24 healthcare workers are unknown after they were forcibly removed from hospitals during Israel’s military operation. (AFP)
Several organizations have shared testimonies from recently released Palestinian doctors describing systematic raids, arrests, and allegations of torture.
Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, in a report released in February, said many medical workers had been seized while on duty and held for months without charge under Israel’s Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows indefinite detention without evidence.
Several accounts from released detainees include details of physical violence, sexual abuse, verbal insults, and degrading treatment.
For instance, Dr. Khaled Alser, 32, a surgeon arrested at Nasser Hospital, said: “On the day of my arrest, the army ordered the evacuation of the hospital. There was a battalion outside, and they forced us to strip in front of everyone and walk naked for about 30 meters.”
He said detainees were left naked for hours before being moved to overcrowded rooms in houses, where they were handcuffed with plastic zip ties for five days and interrogated.
“I was next to my medical colleagues when they took them, tortured and beat them, and later released some while arresting others,” he added.
FASTFACTS
As of Sept. 24, 2024, at least three Palestinian physicians have died in Israeli custody.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh died under torture in Israeli custody in May 2024.
(Source: MAP)
Twenty of the 24 medical workers visited by PHRI lawyers said they were arrested while on duty in direct violation of international laws protecting medical staff from interference.
In addition, prison authorities employed brutal interrogation methods. One 60-year-old emergency coordinator and ambulance driver said he was tortured with loud music, beatings, and threats.
“I was interrogated in the ‘Disco Room’ for a week, where the volume was always deafening,” he said. “They beat me so badly during one session that my tooth filling fell out.
“They poured cold water on me, struck me on the head with a cellphone, and beat me half to death. They threatened to harm my family and parents.”
Israel said it targeted Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Sunday because it contained a “command and control center used by Hamas,” but did not provide any evidence. (AFP)
Similarly, a 38-year-old nurse said he was suspended by his wrists from the ceiling, his legs forced backward, and left in that position for hours.
“They humiliated me and spat on me,” he told the PHRI. “During the interrogation in Ofer Prison, they extinguished cigarettes on my head and poured coffee over me. I was brutally beaten.”
International humanitarian law strictly prohibits physical or psychological abuse during interrogations. Article 32 of the Fourth Geneva Convention bars acts that cause physical suffering or extermination of protected persons, including medical personnel.
“Health workers should be protected to do their work,” a WHO spokesperson told Arab News. “Anyone in detention must have their human and legal rights respected.”
A 38-year-old nurse said he was suspended by his wrists from the ceiling, his legs forced backward, and left in that position for hours during interrogation at Ofer Prison. (AFP)
Israel has accused Hamas and other militant groups of using hospitals as command centers. Under international humanitarian law, hospitals lose protected status if they are used for military purposes.
The deliberate denial of food was also said to be commonplace in Israel’s detention facilities.
The report said all 24 medical professionals interviewed suffered severe malnutrition, as prison authorities provided inadequate meals — in terms of quality and quantity — that also ignored preexisting health conditions like diabetes, causing lasting damage.
One doctor described the food as lacking vitamins and a balanced diet, weakening the detainees’ immune systems. PHRI confirmed this by consulting a clinical nutritionist for an expert assessment of conditions at Ofer Prison near Ramallah.
Compounding health issues from violent treatment and extreme malnutrition in custody, the testimonies highlighted a severe lack of medical care, even for those with preexisting conditions.
Hospitals have been damaged — both directly and indirectly by Israeli airstrikes and combat operations — putting staff and patients at risk. (AFP)
The Israeli Prison Service, in a statement to the American broadcaster CNN following the release of PHRI’s report, denied knowledge of abuse against Palestinian medical workers inside its facilities and claimed it acted according to local law.
In the same vein, the Israeli Defense Forces told the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle it “operates in accordance with international law and does not detain medical workers due to their work as such.”
It denied withholding medical treatment or food and said that “any mistreatment of detainees, whether during detention or interrogation, is strictly prohibited and constitutes a violation of Israeli and international law, and of IDF regulations.”
The IDF added that any mistreatment would be investigated.
International human rights organizations and UN agencies have documented Israel’s actions in Gaza, accusing it of war crimes.
Amnesty International said in December that “Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”
In October 2024, a UN Commission on Detainee Treatment report found that Israeli security forces deliberately killed, detained, and tortured medical personnel, targeted medical vehicles, and tightened the siege on Gaza, restricting permits for medical treatment.
“These actions constitute the war crimes of wilful killing and mistreatment and of the destruction of protected civilian property and the crime against humanity of extermination,” it added.
Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in August that Israel’s “mistreatment of Palestinian healthcare workers has continued in the shadows.”
She called for a thorough investigation into “the torture and ill-treatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics, including by the International Criminal Court.”
A lawyer representing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, whose detention by Israeli forces in December sparked international condemnation, said after visiting him in Ofer Prison that the doctor had been tortured, beaten, and denied medical treatment.
In addition, the accounts in PHRI’s report align with findings by other media and rights organizations, including a 2024 Human Rights Watch report that documented similar abuses. It said the detentions have worsened Gaza’s health crisis by limiting access to essential care.
A lawyer representing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya (C), whose detention by Israeli forces in December sparked international condemnation, said after visiting him in Ofer Prison that the doctor had been tortured, beaten, and denied medical treatment. (AFP)
Likewise, interviews with The Guardian and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism revealed testimonies from eight senior Gaza doctors, detailing torture, beatings, starvation, and humiliation during months of detention.
Some believe they were singled out for extreme violence because they were doctors.
Dr. Issam Abu Ajwa was in the middle of performing emergency surgery on a patient at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza when Israeli soldiers came for him.
Describing his ordeal, he said: “One of the senior interrogators had given instructions that because I was a senior consultant surgeon, they should work hard to make sure that I lost (the use of my hands) and became unable to perform surgery.”
He added that he was handcuffed 24 hours a day, and interrogators used planks with chains to restrain his hands for hours at a time. “They said they wanted to make sure I could never return to work.”
None of the eight senior doctors were given an explanation for their detention, the report says. All were released without charge after months in custody.
Relatives and medics mourn by the body of Palestinian doctor Hani Al-Jaafarawi, Gaza’s ambulance and emergency teams chief during his funeral at Al-Ahli Arab hospital on June 24, 2024. (AFP)
In a statement to DW, the Israeli military rejected the allegations raised by The Guardian, saying: “During the fighting in the Gaza Strip, suspects of terrorist activities were arrested.”
It added: “The relevant suspects have been taken for further detention and questioning in Israel. Those who are not involved in terrorist activity are released back to the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.”
PHRI’s report found that Palestinian medical workers were primarily questioned about Israeli hostages, tunnels, hospital structures, Hamas activity, and fellow physicians — rarely about criminal activity or substantive charges.
The report said the interrogations appeared focused on “intelligence gathering rather than investigating alleged security offenses.”
It noted that after months in detention, most medical personnel were never formally charged and were denied legal representation.
Israeli military patrols near Al-Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza City on November 22, 2023. (AFP)
Naji Abbas, director of PHRI’s Department for Prisoners and Detainees’ Rights, said: “Through the testimonies, through our visits, we started to understand that the doctors were arrested mainly for collecting information.
“When you hear a doctor saying that he was forced to draw a map of the hospital, when he was asked about his colleagues … you can understand that there is a pattern of questioning … fishing for information,” he told Democracy Now, a left-leaning US news program.
In a statement within the February report, Abbas called the “unlawful detention, abuse, and starvation of Gaza’s healthcare workers” a “moral and legal outrage.”
He added that “medical professionals should never be targeted, detained, or tortured for providing life-saving care,” and demanded Israel “release all detained medical personnel immediately,” urging the international community to “demand accountability.”
What we know about Israel’s latest Gaza ceasefire proposal
A previous ceasefire, initiated on January 19, resulted in the release of 33 hostages in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners, before it collapsed two months later
Updated 15 April 2025
AFP
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Nearly a month after Israel resumed its aerial and ground assaults across Gaza to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages in the territory, the Palestinian militant group says it had received a new ceasefire proposal from Israel.
A senior Hamas official told AFP that the group would “most likely” respond within 48 hours.
The proposal was delivered to the group’s delegation in Cairo over the weekend by Egyptian officials, who are mediating in the ceasefire talks.
Another senior Hamas official told AFP late on Monday that Israel had proposed a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages.
In return, Israel would free 1,231 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory, which it has been fully blockading since March 2.
During Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza, Palestinian militants abducted 251 hostages, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
A previous ceasefire, initiated on January 19, resulted in the release of 33 hostages in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners, before it collapsed two months later.
The latest proposal also stipulates that any hostage release occur privately, in contrast to the previous releases involving public ceremonies in Gaza that drew widespread criticism in Israel.
The Hamas official said that the Israeli proposal calls for the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander on the first day of the ceasefire as a “gesture of goodwill.”
Alexander is the only living hostage to hold US citizenship.
On the second day, Hamas would exchange five more hostages for 66 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 611 Gazans detained during the current war.
On the third day, talks would begin over “day after” scenarios for when the war ends, including the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian factions in exchange for a permanent ceasefire.
Hamas has insisted that preserving its arms is a red line.
In the second week of the ceasefire, Hamas would release four more living hostages in exchange for 54 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and another 500 Gaza detainees.
Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan 11, said that the proposal also stipulates that Hamas release the bodies of 16 hostages on the 20th day of the ceasefire.
Hamas negotiators visited Cairo last week where they received the proposal, Suhail Al-Hindi, a member of the group’s political bureau, told AFP on Tuesday.
The official who spoke to AFP the day before said on Tuesday that “Hamas will most likely send its response to the mediators within the next 48 hours, as the movement is still conducting in-depth consultations... within its leadership framework, as well as with resistance factions, in order to formulate a unified position.”
He said that consultations were ongoing, and that Hamas was “keen to end the aggression and the war” but would require guarantees from Egypt, Qatar and US mediators that Israel would uphold its side of the deal.
“Hamas has no issue with the number of prisoners and is ready to release them all at once or in batches,” he added.
Israel has remained silent on the latest proposal.
However, the campaign group Tikva Forum of Hostages’ Families, which represents a small group of families of hostages advocating for the continuation of military pressure, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had confirmed that the country was indeed seeking the release of 10 living captives.
According to the group, Netanyahu spoke with Ditza Or, the mother of hostage Avinatan Or, late on Monday and confirmed that Alexander was among those included in the proposed exchange.
She responded by saying that “there is a moral obligation to return everyone together in one stage and on one bus,” the group added.
