Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost an opportunity to reach a hostage swap deal with Hamas in July to appease his far-right coalition partners National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation KAN reported. According to the report, Hamas was willing to release several Israeli hostages without demanding a full ceasefire in return. The report suggested that Hamas’s willingness at the time was an attempt to link the first and second phases of a US ceasefire proposal which included humanitarian aid.
