The head of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, has insisted that after his country's incursion into Lebanon concludes, any ceasefire will be contingent on the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to the Walla news agency, citing a senior US official.
Dadi Barnea, head of Mossad, recently relayed the demand to CIA Director William Burns, Walla reported on Wednesday.
According to the unnamed American official and another informed source, Barnea told Burns that Israel and the US should only agree to a truce in Lebanon if Hamas frees the captives.
The Mossad chief allegedly believes that it would be possible to make the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, Iran and “other elements in the region” put pressure on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to meet the terms, the report said.
Some 1,200 people were killed and 250 others taken hostage during an incursion into Israel by Hamas on October 7 last year.
Since then, the Palestinian armed group has released 109 captives, most of whom were set free during a week-long truce in late November. Eight hostages were rescued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), while 37 others have been confirmed dead, including three people mistakenly killed by Israeli troops.
Talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas have stalled for the past several months. There have been large-scale protests in Israel, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to do more to secure the release of the hostages.
The latest data from Gaza’s health ministry says that at least 42,010 people have been killed and 97,720 others wounded in Israeli airstrikes and the ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave over the past year.
Walla wrote that Israel and the US agree that now is not the time for a ceasefire in Lebanon, and that the operation against Hezbollah should continue.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu addressed the Lebanese people, urging them to “free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.” Failure to do so could mean Lebanon “falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” he warned.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu held his first phone call in almost 50 days with US President Joe Biden. According to the White House readout, the two leaders mainly focused on possible Israeli retaliation for an Iranian missile attack last week, but the Lebanese issue was also raised. Among other things, Biden stressed the need for a “diplomatic arrangement” that would allow Israeli and Lebanese citizens, displaced by the fighting in the border area, to return to their homes.