AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Today, Israel has recovered the bodies of six hostages from Gaza. The families of the hostages say all six of them were kidnapped alive in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7. They died while they were being held. This news came just hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in an effort to push forward a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. In remarks last night, Blinken reiterated that time is running out for the Israeli hostages in Gaza to be rescued alive. To tell us more we're joined now by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Hi, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: So can you tell us more about these hostages whose bodies were just recovered?
LONSDORF: So these hostages were six men ranging in age from as young as 35 to four in their 70s and 80s. And they were from two different communities that were devastated in the October 7 Hamas attack, Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Nirim. Many of them had either family who were also taken hostage or killed in that attack. And like you said just now, all of them were taken alive on October 7. Several of them even had proof of life videos released as recently as March. But we have known for a few months that at least five of them were dead. This leaves 109 hostages remaining in Gaza, according to the Israeli government, and U.S. officials estimate about half of them are dead.
CHANG: Well, all of this comes as Secretary of State Blinken left Israel this morning after a long conversation with Netanyahu yesterday.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
CHANG: Blinken has been trying to secure a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, as we've been saying. Where does that effort stand at this point?
LONSDORF: So Blinken is here trying to push forward a proposal presented by mediators at the end of last week in Doha meant to bridge the final gaps between Israel and Hamas. Both Israel and Hamas seemed unenthusiastic about that bridging proposal in the days after it was announced last week. But last night, Blinken told reporters that Netanyahu had agreed to it, and now it was up to Hamas. But we've seen this before. Just because America says that they have an agreement from Israel, it doesn't mean that we're hearing that from Israel. Netanyahu's office did put out a statement last night after his talk with Blinken, but it did not mention agreeing to this bridging proposal, so that's still unclear. Hamas, on the other hand, has put out a statement saying that they're for a cease-fire and want to end the war. But this new proposal caters to Netanyahu's demands too much in their opinion on several key sticking points, and they blame him for obstructing the deal.
CHANG: I am wondering in terms of public opinion how this latest news about the recovered bodies of these hostages - how that is impacting the way people in Israel are feeling about a possible cease-fire deal.
LONSDORF: Yeah, this news is almost sure to add to the increasing pressure on Netanyahu. People are really angry. They want a deal signed in order to get the rest of the hostages home and to end the war. There have been weekly protests here in Tel Aviv and other parts of the country since the war began nearly 11 months ago. And this week's protest was massive - thousands of people in the streets. And generally, there is not just hope that maybe this time will be different and the cease-fire deal will come through, but there's also a feeling that this might be the last chance to get these hostages out while they're still alive.
CHANG: Well, Blinken headed to Egypt and Qatar today before heading back to the U.S. Do we know anything about how those talks went?
LONSDORF: So he met with leaders in both places. Egypt and Qatar are the two other countries that mediated this agreement along with the U.S. Egypt is expected to host the renewed cease-fire talks later this week. You know, Ailsa, I'll say all of this diplomacy has added urgency because of threats from Iran and its proxies to retaliate for an assassination on Iranian soil that Israel was widely blamed for. The feeling is that as long as a cease-fire in Gaza is a possibility, Iran will hold its fire. And of course, meanwhile, the war is still very much going on in Gaza. More than 150 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since this new round of talks began last week. That's adding to the more than 40,000 total who have been killed in Gaza according to health officials there. So there is real pressure from a lot of angles now to get something to work.
CHANG: That is NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thank you, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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