Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel’s operation against Iran has opened up “broad regional possibilities,” while stressing that freedom for hostages was a top priority.

“First of all, [we need] to free the hostages,” he said during a visit to a Shin Bet facility in southern Israel. “Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I believe that we will achieve both tasks.”

His comments were broadly interpreted in local media as prioritizing a deal to return the 50 remaining captives in Gaza before all else, as Israel faces mounting US pressure to reach a deal to end the war, and amid reported plans by Washington for sweeping regional agreements aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and its neighbors—particularly Saudi Arabia and Syria.

The premier led a high-level cabinet meeting Sunday night in the IDF’s Southern Command Headquarters in Beersheba to discuss the Gaza war and hostage deal efforts. Defense Minister Israel Katz and other ministers, Netanyahu’s aides and senior IDF officers attended the top-level ministerial meeting.

Hebrew media outlets reported that the meeting ended without a decision being made and that further discussions were scheduled for Monday.

Arab mediators had been hoping that Israel would agree to send a delegation to Cairo during the meeting, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

On Monday, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was set to meet in Washington with American officials to get on the same page with the US before another round of indirect talks in Cairo, the diplomat and a US official familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

Dermer will face pressure from the Trump administration to end the war in Gaza, according to the sources.

Remaining sticking points between the sides include Hamas’s demand for a permanent end to the war — as opposed to Israel’s efforts to secure a temporary ceasefire that leaves open the option for........

© The Times of Israel