Day 562 - Hostage families in anguish as PM says no deal

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

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4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

Following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement Saturday night detailing his refusal to negotiate a deal that ends the war to free the hostages, Horovitz discusses the anguish of the hostage families and their growing concern over the government's plans. He explores the prime minister's stance on the war with Hamas as well as Netanyahu's detailed reasoning amid the growing skepticism and dismay about Netanyahu's motivations regarding the war.

As the US and Iran head into more nuclear talks on Wednesday, following another round in Italy on Saturday, Horovitz considers the implications of the talks, and the role of special envoy Steve Witkoff in the negotiations, and the concerns about Israel's security.

Finally, Horovitz takes a brief look at the latest spat in Qatargate, as lawyers for the one of the main suspects goes up against a spokesperson for the prime minister, and how the entire scandal connects back to the forced resignation of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

Please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog for more updates.

For further reading:

Netanyahu: Won’t surrender to Hamas by ending war to get back hostages; can’t trick Hamas either

Israeli soldier killed in Hamas attack, in first since collapse of Gaza ceasefire

After Rome talks, Tehran says Iran and US ‘to start designing framework’ for nuclear deal

In public spat, lawyers for Qatargate suspect accuse Netanyahu spokesman of ‘hysteria’

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: Sylvia Cunio, mother of hostages and brothers David and Ariel Cunio, at the Gaza border near Kibbutz Nir Oz calling for her sons and the other hostages to be freed in one phase. (Credit Tanya Zion-Waldoks/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily Briefing. It is Sunday, April 20th, and I'm Jessica Steinberg.
0:08.8	I'm speaking today with Times Visual founding editor David Horowitz. Hi, David. How are you doing?
0:13.9	Hey, Jessica. How you do?
0:15.2	Hi there. It is day 562 of the war. An Israeli soldier was killed in a Hamas attack in Gaza. His name was
0:23.6	Galeb Sliman Al-Nasara. Five others were hurt together in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon.
0:31.7	Al-Nasara from the Bedouin city of Rahat was the first soldier killed in Gaza since the end of
0:36.8	the ceasefire on March 18th.
0:39.4	This morning, hostage families went to the border with Gaza from Kupitz near Oz.
0:44.6	They're there calling for their loved ones to be free, telling their loved ones through microphones
0:50.7	to stay strong. And that's all as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night that he will not
0:58.9	surrender to Hamas by ending the war to get back the hostages, and that fighting won't end
1:04.8	until the terror group is destroyed.
1:07.1	We'll discuss those issues, those headlines, as well as the results of Saturday's nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran, and the latest in the Qatar Gate affair, as lawyers for one of the main suspects, is going up against the prime minister's spokesperson.
1:24.1	Stay with us.
1:31.3	Thank you. person. Stay with us. Listeners of this podcast might be familiar with Sapir, a quarterly journal devoted to ideas
1:36.5	for a thriving Jewish future edited by Brett Stevens of the New York Times.
1:41.1	Every issue of Sapir focuses on a theme relevant to Jewish life and offers practical
1:45.8	solutions to the problems facing the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Past themes have included
1:51.4	Zionism, anti-Semitism, and the war in Israel. If you live in the U.S., you can now receive
1:56.5	Sipir delivered directly to your home free of charge, which is kind of amazing, considering
2:01.0	how high quality it is. The current issue on diversity even includes an article in English by
2:06.2	Israel's president Isaac Herzog, who is himself an avid reader. Go to superjournal.org
	...

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