Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he hopes all remaining Israeli hostages will be freed from Gaza in the “coming days”.
In a televised address to the nation on Saturday (4 October), the Israeli prime minister said that he is optimistic that all the living hostages will be returned during the Jewish festival of the Tabernacles, or Sukkot, which lasts from 6 October to 13 October.
Mr Netanyahu said that at the beginning of the war there was some doubt over whether the hostages would ever be freed, though he personally “believed and acted differently”.
“Thanks to these determined decisions I led with the government and our brave soldiers we have brought back 207 hostages but I never gave up on the others nor achieved the other objectives of the war,” Mr Netanyahu said, in his first public speech since Donald Trump announced the 20-point Gaza peace plan.
