i24 News – Operation “Breaking Dawn” opened the door to a political solution for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, senior Israeli officials said Monday.
“We are fully aware that there is an opportunity opening in Gaza the day after (ending the operation),” the sources said at a press briefing, as a fragile ceasefire that came into effect on Sunday evening between Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Israel was respected overnight.
“We don’t want to miss it by just having a ceasefire with Islamic Jihad,” the officials said, as Gaza’s ruling Hamas group still detains two Israelis – Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed – who are believed to have entered Gaza on their own in 2014 and 2015.
The remains of two fallen Israeli soldiers, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin and Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul, have also been in the hands of the Islamist group since the 2014 Gaza war.
“The issue of captives is high on Prime Minister Lapid’s priority list,” Israeli officials assured, adding, “We are working to exploit every opportunity to address this issue as a humanitarian event.”
“From the start, we wanted to focus only on Islamic Jihad. The decision was made to only act against them when there was a need to thwart an attack, and that’s how we operated on Friday,” the officials said referring to eliminating one of the leaders of the terrorist group, Tayseer al-Jabari.
