UK envoy Simon Walters calls for comprehensive Gaza deal to free hostages and end war

He reflected on the failed May 31 three-phase deal that never came to fruition, explaining that a new approach was necessary.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF NOVEMBER 19, 2024 16:30

BRITISH AMBASSADOR Simon Walters. (photo credit: BEN KELMER)

A Gaza deal is needed that would free all the 101 hostages at once, end the war, and provide a comprehensive solution for the enclave moving forward, British Ambassador Simon Walters said on Tuesday.

"We need to be honest; the phased approach of the last year is very unlikely to work," Walters said during a conversation with reporters in his Ramat Gan home.

He reflected on the failed May 31 three-phase deal that never came to fruition, explaining that a new approach was necessary.

"We need instead a comprehensive deal which encompasses not just a ceasefire and hostage release, but also a plan for the future for Gaza," he said.

Negotiations, he stressed, are the only way to return the captives.

Photos of more than a thousand people taken hostages, missing or killed on October 7, 2023 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

"Negations are the only realistic way they are going to get them out," said Walters.

Accelerated hostage talks

Great Britain is calling for hostage talks to be "accelerated and for a deal to be done as fast as possible, to end the fighting and to get the hostages out."

It was concerning for him, Walters said, "to hear members of the Israeli government continue to call for the war to go on endlessly, for the fighting to continue."

The cost of continuing the fighting is high, he said, and won't "achieve much militarily."

"It is going to lead to more deaths of soldiers, of Palestinians, more destruction of property, and the bottom line is that it is not going to be possible to eliminate Hamas through force on its own," Walters said.

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The envoy, who has been at his post for over a year, said that most of his career has been spent in conflict and war zones.

"I was attached to the British army when we went into Iraq in 2003-2004, I have worked on the Syria conflict, countered ISIS efforts, I've lived in Yemen, I've seen the conflict with the Houthis, I have worked in Afghanistan. 

"So, I have plenty of experience on this. We know that defeating guerrilla groups, terrorists, and insurgents when they are embedded in a population is impossible if you only use military force," he said.

Military force works well only when combined with politics.

"That is what we need now. I hear people calling for the continuation of the war until Hamas is destroyed, and I think they are kidding themselves. 

"They are imagining an outcome that will never come. So it is essential that we would recognize that and focus our efforts on getting a hostage deal because it is the only way we can get them home," he stressed.