ByELIAV BREUER
Updated:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled the government’s weekly meeting on Sunday, following the IDF’s retrieval of six bodies of hostages from Gaza on Saturday, a government spokesperson confirmed.

Netanyahu instead scheduled a national security cabinet meeting, which convened at 4 p.m. The weekly government meeting will be held on Monday at 11 a.m.

On Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that it had canceled his scheduled visit on Sunday morning to an elementary school in Jerusalem to mark the beginning of the new school year.

The scheduling changes came amid public criticism over a controversial decision in the national security cabinet on Thursday night that the IDF will maintain a continuous presence on the Gaza-Egypt border. According to recordings from the meeting published by Channel 12, Netanyahu acknowledged during the meeting that the decision likely meant the collapse of negotiations over a hostage deal.

Yair Lapid demands gov't to meet

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid penned a letter on Sunday to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud), demanding that the plenum convene on Monday with the prime minister in attendance to discuss a hostage deal, which Lapid said was supported by a majority of the nation and a majority of the Knesset.


The Knesset is in recess until October 28. The speaker has the authority to convene the Knesset for special sessions during the recess. He must convene the plenum if at least 25 MKs request that he do so, but he still has the prerogative to determine the date.
Yair Lapid gives a speech about his version of how the October 7 Massacre happened at a press conference with the unofficial civilian probe in Tel Aviv, August 29, 2024.
Yair Lapid gives a speech about his version of how the October 7 Massacre happened at a press conference with the unofficial civilian probe in Tel Aviv, August 29, 2024. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

At press time, no plenum was scheduled for Monday.

On Saturday evening, opposition MKs belonging to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee wrote to committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) demanding to convene the committee and summon the prime minister to explain his “failures to achieve the set war objectives, the refusal to set new objectives, and the acceptance of a series of decisions that endanger Israel’s strategic position.” The letter was an initiative of National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot.

The bodies retrieved were of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino, the IDF said Sunday. The IDF retrieved the bodies from a tunnel under Rafah. They were likely slaughtered by Hamas shortly before the IDF got to them.