Hamas not ‘serious’ about hostage negotiations: Israeli spokesperson

(NewsNation) — The Israeli military said Friday its troops in Gaza found the bodies of three Israeli hostages killed by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths “heartbreaking,” saying, “We will return all of our hostages, both the living and the dead.”

“Bringing our stolen people back home is obviously a top priority. It’s one of the war objectives as we defined it on October 7, and our war objectives have not changed since then, and are also supported by the U.S. administration,” said Tal Heinrich, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Heinrich joined NewsNation’s “Morning in America” to discuss the ongoing conflict, saying Hamas has not been serious about coming to a deal for the remaining hostages.

“The problem is that Hamas they haven’t been serious about negotiations,” she said. “They keep presenting outlandish demands and what do they want? They want to remain in power, as simple as that. They want the IDF to withdraw, and they want to remain in power to live another day and to carry out another October 7 massacre.”

The military said the bodies were found overnight, without elaborating, and did not give immediate details on where they were located. Israel has been operating in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, where it says it has intelligence that hostages are being held.

Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more. Israel’s war in Gaza since the attack has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back, but he’s made little progress. He faces pressure to resign, and the U.S. has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.