Israel opposition, hostages’ kin call for end to Gaza war

Israel’s opposition leader and the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza called on Tuesday for an end to the war in the Palestinian territory after a ceasefire was announced with Iran.

US President Donald Trump said a truce was in effect between Israel and Iran after 12 days of war that saw Israel and the United States pummel the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities.

“And now Gaza. It’s time to finish it there too. Bring back the hostages, end the war,” opposition leader Yair Lapid of the centre-right Yesh Atid party wrote on X.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing the families of those abducted during Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, also called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a Gaza ceasefire.

“We call on the government to engage in urgent negotiations that will bring home all the hostages and end the war. Those who can achieve a ceasefire with Iran can also end the war in Gaza,” it said in a statement.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

The prime minister of Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, said the Gulf country was working on resuming talks for a ceasefire.

“We are still continuing our efforts, and God willing, we will try to look for an opportunity during the next two days for having indirect negotiations between the two parties,” Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog suggested the truce with Iran was “a great opportunity” to foster national unity after the highly divisive Gaza war, although he did not call for an end to the fighting in the territory.

“I believe this can be a moment of goodwill and national agreement on many painful issues,” Herzog told reporters at the site of an Iranian missile strike in southern Israel.

Foreign leaders too expressed hope that the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran would lead to a truce in Gaza which Israeli troops invaded more than 20 months ago.

“Today... the moment has come to conclude a ceasefire for Gaza,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the German parliament. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority demanded that the ceasefire with Iran be widened to include Gaza, which is suffering from famine-like conditions and near-daily deadly shootings near aid centres, according to UN agencies.

“The Palestinian presidency welcomed US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire agreement,” president Mahmud Abbas’s office said in a statement, adding: “We demand the completion of this step by achieving a ceasefire that includes the Gaza Strip.”

The October 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,077 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday said that “the moment has come” for a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

Speaking to parliament, Merz reiterated Germany’s support for Israel, which he said “has a right to defend its existence and the safety of its citizens”. But he added that Germany reserves the right to “critically question what Israel wants to achieve in the Gaza Strip”.

He also said that Germany “will not consider suspending or terminating” the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which has been under review by the EU as it looks to pressure Israel into allowing more aid into Gaza.

However, Merz also called on Israel to ensure “humane treatment of the people in the Gaza Strip, especially women, children and the elderly”.

Merz made the comments amid hopes for a ceasefire between Israel and Iran announced by US President Donald Trump, even as the two sides accused each other of continuing hostilities and the US president voiced frustration with both.

Israel launched strikes against Iran on June 13, hitting nuclear and military sites as well as residential areas, and prompting waves of retaliatory Iranian missile attacks.

Agencies