MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We have news of politics in two countries.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We hear who's favored in U.S. Senate races, and we go to Israel, where people are demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a cease-fire with Hamas.
MARTIN: Days of protests have followed the news that Hamas killed six hostages just as Israeli troops were approaching the part of Gaza where they were. Now, the prime minister's critics do blame Hamas for the killings, but they accuse Netanyahu of blocking a deal that could have brought the hostages home. Now, the critics include one of Israel's leading political figures, who was allied with the prime minister until recently.
INSKEEP: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi is in Tel Aviv and covering this story. Welcome.
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Thank you.
INSKEEP: OK. That political leader is Benny Gantz, who's a former general and a veteran Israeli politician. What's he saying?
AL-SHALCHI: Yeah, well, last night, Gantz came out fighting. He demanded Netanyahu make a deal or quit. Gantz is the leader of the centrist National Unity party, and he was part of Israel's emergency war cabinet that was formed after October 7. But then he quit in June, protesting Netanyahu's handling of the war. Last night, he said Netanyahu should, quote, "hand over the keys and go home." Have a listen.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BENNY GANTZ: (Speaking Hebrew).
AL-SHALCHI: "Netanyahu has lost his way. He sees himself as the state, and that's dangerous," Gantz said.
Now, Gantz actually doesn't have enough influence to sway Netanyahu. I mean, Netanyahu's own defense minister has tried to get the prime minister to accept a deal, and he refuses to.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
AL-SHALCHI: But Gantz's voice yesterday does add to the ever-growing pressure from inside Israel - and, frankly, the world - for Netanyahu to just accept a deal and eventually end the war in Gaza.
INSKEEP: I want to work through the different viewpoints on what Netanyahu is doing. His critics contend that he's being obstinate for self-preservation - that his far-right coalition doesn't want the deal and they would unseat him, or that, if the shooting were to stop, there would have to be an election that he would lose. Those are the theories...
AL-SHALCHI: That's right.
INSKEEP: ...Against him. But I want to understand the way the prime minister describes his situation. The outlines of a deal are Israelis stop their assault, Hamas releases hostages. What does Netanyahu say is wrong with that deal?
AL-SHALCHI: We don't know all the details of the cease-fire proposal that's on the table right now, but we do know that a major sticking is the presence of Israeli troops on a strip of land called the Philadelphi Corridor, on the Gaza-Egypt border. Netanyahu is opposed to withdrawing Israeli troops from it. He says that Hamas could smuggle weapons through the tunnels under it and rebuild its military capabilities or even smuggle hostages the other way, into Egypt. And Hamas wants the Israeli military to withdraw completely from the area, which actually is something that Netanyahu's own defense minister is ready to do and says it could be done relatively safely.
INSKEEP: Another one of the points of opposition between Netanyahu and some of his fellow Israelis. I want to ask about another news item. Just after these hostages were killed, including an American, the American Justice Department issued indictments against Hamas leaders. What's going on there?
AL-SHALCHI: Right. So the Department of Justice announced last night that they were unsealing indictments of six Hamas leaders, including the group's head, Yahya Sinwar. He's believed to be somewhere in a tunnel under Gaza, you know, directing operations. And the charges say that they carried out attacks that killed Americans, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin. He was one of the hostages whose death sparked the mass protests in Israel in the past couple of days. And, you know, this is a largely symbolic move. Three of those Hamas leaders named are already dead.
INSKEEP: Although, I suppose, others are alive. And Israeli airstrikes continue, and other kinds of strikes continue on Gaza, correct?
AL-SHALCHI: Yeah. So in Gaza, the death toll mounts. Latest figures, after nearly 11 months of war, is more than 40,800, according to health officials in Gaza. Evacuation orders continue displacing Palestinians numerous times. And also, Israel's largest military operation in the West Bank in almost two years continues. Israeli troops have encircled a number of urban refugee camps like Jenin, saying they want to root out militants. There, Palestinian officials say 33 Palestinians have been killed so far in those raids, dozens of arrests, and Israel says militants have killed three Israeli police officers.
INSKEEP: OK. NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv, thanks so much.
AL-SHALCHI: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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