The families of those who are being held captive in Gaza have demanded an urgent meeting and explanation from Netanyahu, wondering why he is not exploring every single angle to get a ceasefire and the release of more hostages, reports Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher from occupied East Jerusalem.

According to various reports, two out of three in Israel’s war cabinet decided that it was not a good idea to send someone from Mossad to Qatar to start talking about the release of captives — only former Deputy Prime Minister Benny Gantz was in favour of doing so.

“What was said is that the war cabinet thinks they should continue with their show of force in Gaza and force Hamas to the negotiating table. They believe that is a way to negotiate — from a position of strength.”

“But it is clear that the families of the captives want some answers, and they would like to see someone from Israel head to Qatar to at least examine the possibility of getting more of the captives out of Gaza sooner rather than later,” Fisher adds.