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ISRAEL’S new offensive in Gaza hinders bringing the remaining hostages home and puts them in “immediate danger”, a former diplomat has warned.
Ex-Israeli ambassador Daniel Shek questioned the point of the latest ground operation against Hamas as he insisted the military is now “going around in circles”.
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Earlier this year, there was a glimmer of hope as both the terror group and Israel laid down their arms and 33 hostages – 25 alive – were released.
But Shek said the three-phase plan failed to reach its second phase as Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition partners vowed they would leave if it did – collapsing the government.
Now Israel risks sanctions from the UK and France after launching a renewed ground offensive just after Donald Trump left the region without fixing a ceasefire deal.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun in Paris, Shek warned the fresh operation – dubbed Gideon’s Chariots – has a “two-fold danger” for those still captive.
His call for the Israeli government to prioritise returning the hostages through diplomatic means before crushing Hamas was echoed by Shoshan Haran, who was kidnapped by terrorists.
Shek, the former ambassador to France, said: “On the one hand they can be collateral victims of bombarding areas in Gaza.
“Many of the returned hostages say that the scariest moments of their captivity were connected to Israeli bombs falling nearby where they were.
“We don’t know the exact number of hostages who perished through such and obviously nobody accuses anybody of premeditation. It’s just it happens but it puts them in immediate danger.
“The other is that every single hostage who came back from captivity said that their captors told them very clearly and very often that the moment they hear the IDF forces nearby they will put a bullet in their head.
“It was sort of a part of the psychological pressure they put on them.”
Barbaric Hamas terrorists took more than 250 hostages when they swept across the border on October 7, 2023 and unleashed a brutal massacre.
Shoshan Haran was among those dragged to Gaza after she and eight of her family members were kidnapped from kibbutz Be’eri while callous gun-toting terrorists murdered her husband and brother-in-law.
The grandmother, who was released in November 2023, said hostages still holed up in Gaza is not preferable for either nation.
She told a conference of European and Israeli officials in the French capital: “The only way to get the hostages out of Gaza is through a deal.
“The release of all the hostages is the key for rehabilitation not only for Israeli people, but for the Palestinian people in Gaza.
“The hostages still there is suffering for both sides. Hamas is using the Pastinians to make Israel look bad. Hamas does not care about Palestinian suffering.”
Some 58 hostages remain in Hamas’ clutches in Gaza – up to 23 who are still believed to be alive
Shek – head of diplomacy at the Hostages and Missing Families Forum – pointed to the fact that around 150 hostages have been freed by diplomatic means, while only seven have been rescued alive through military action.
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Shutterstock Editorial“As uplifting these moments of liberation were, they just don’t compete,” he said.
“Plus after the last successful freeing of hostages through a military action, which was many months ago, all the hostages without any exception were put underground.
“Whereas before that some of them, we don’t know exactly how many, were in homes and above ground – which makes the living conditions very different.
“So for us [at the Hostage Forum] there’s no doubt as long as there is a diplomatic alternative and there is one that should be the absolute priority.”
Every single hostage who came back from captivity said their captors told them very clearly that the moment they hear IDF forces nearby they will put a bullet in their head
Daniel ShekShek believes military efforts on the ground to eliminate Hamas – ongoing since October 7, 2023 – have been exhausted.
He added: “I listened to the military experts for many many months already and the message between the lines and sometimes not even between them is that sort of treading water going around in circles.
“There are no real military objectives anymore and that quite frankly the war could and should have ended a year ago in May 2024.
“There was a real opportunity for an exit strategy and it was not taken. A year has gone by and we’re not currently not at the end of this ordeal.”
A proposal drafted by mediators in the US, Egypt and Qatar last May was surprisingly accepted by Hamas.
Israel, however, rejected the proposal – and Netanyahu launched an invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza soon after.
Months later after Donald Trump took office, a variation of the three-phase plan proposed by his predecessor Joe Biden was given the green light.
What happened on October 7?
ON October 7 2023, militants of Hamas and other Palestinian nationalist groups launched co-ordinated armed attacks in the Gaza Envelope of southern Israel.
The perpetrators had managed to bypass Israeli defences to para-glide across the border, in what became the first invasion of the territory since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The horror coincided with the Jewish celebration of Simchat Torah, and initiated the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.
A barrage of around 4,300 rockets were launched on Israel from the Gaza Strip in the early hours of October 7 before vehicles and powered paragliders crossed the border.
The Hamas fighters attacked military bases and massacred civilians in 21 communities, including Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Netiv Haasara, and Alumim.
The first civilian attack started at 6.29am at the Nova Music Festival site at Re’im, just three miles from Gaza.
More than 360 revellers were cut down as they desperately tried to flee.
Across October 7, an estimated 1,139 people were massacred and another 250 civilians and soldiers were taken hostage into Gaza.
Shek said: “Israel signed a framework agreement in January – and that was the result not of 14 months of military pressure but of a five-minute phone call between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.
“That had three phases. Phase one happened and luckily it did, 33 hostages came back.
“Phase two was supposed to be negotiated in detail during phase one and that never happened.
“The real reason and we knew that from the very beginning was that Netanyahu’s coalition partners told him very openly that if he goes on to phase two they leave the government and his coalition falls.
“So we were very skeptical from day one that this would ever go beyond phase one and we weren’t wrong unfortunately.
“So again what does it depend on? Probably on the guy in the White House how insistent he’s going to be.”
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