well for more I'm joined on set by our International Affairs editor kavan gorani kavan what do we know about the circumstances of this operation well first of all the location you said it was a tunnel uh under the the city of Rafa it's actually about a kilometer from the location where uh they successfully uh saved an Israeli hostage alive just last week so uh that is uh significant in itself but then really there is a sort of blame game on what exactly happened to the six hostages the Israeli Army says as you said that uh they uh their assessment is that these hostages were brutally murdered in their own words uh shortly before the Israeli Army got to them the Israeli Army insisting that there was no realtime fire engagement in that tunnel that has been dismissed by Hamas who uh on the other hand blame the Israelis for the deaths of uh these hostages saying that they were quote killed by the occupation's fire and bombing uh whatever uh happened these hostages are now dead they have been uh retrieved by the Israeli Army which means that uh we're now at an official tally uh this according to Israeli officials of 101 hostages still uh remaining with about 30 uh hostages believed to be dead so still a lot of these hostages uh being held either by Hamas or by other groups in the area this has of course angered the families of the hostages there was a statement by one of the hostage family groups that said that a deal for the return of the hostages had been on the table for over two months and were it not for the delays sabotage and excuses they would likely still be alive so they are really calling now for a mass protest today later on today calling on the government to uh go ahead with that ceasefire and hostage uh release uh deal it's the uh the rally is called bring the nation to a halt and the goal for them according to their website is that the entire nation will be standing alongside the hostages families to protest the cabinets ongoing neglect of the hostages so really the families blaming uh the Benyamin Netanyahu government for what is happening right now well the two sides have failed to agree to a deal for months now where does this leave a potential hostage and ceasefire deal well uh clearly there's a lot of pressure for from the hostage families uh from a big chunk of the population because uh these protests have been going on and you see also people who have nothing to do with the hostages who are calling on the government to uh move ahead with that deal there's also quite a bit of division within the government uh this was reported by the Israel Israeli media over the past few days the sort of shout match between Benyamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister and his Minister of Defense yav Galant yav Galant who was accusing Benyamin Netanyahu and his supporters of uh prioritizing this strategic Corridor that is on the border between Gaza and Egypt uh over the lives of the hostages that Corridor being one of the sticking points to this possible ceas fire deal and there again in that issue of the deal there is some blame going around hamama is accusing Israel of refusing to go along with the elements of that deal and they say that at least three hostages uh that were recovered uh they were on a list for a potential swap if that deal had been agreed to uh Benyamin Netanyahu blaming Hamas saying that whoever murders hostages does not want a deal but issuing this warning to Hamas let listen to the Israeli Prime Minister to humas terrorists who murdered our hostages and to their leaders you are dead men we will not rest until we track you down we will get you and we'll settle our score of course uh a ceasefire and tracking every single Hamas member down doesn't really seem to be a fitting but uh the mediators the qataris the Americans uh the Egyptians are continuing their mediation efforts they're continuing to be optimistic uh Joe Biden just yesterday saying that he was optimistic because these all these parties were still willing to talk willing uh to meet but for now that really is where we are at uh is being optimistic because they are still talking but doesn't seem to be going anywhere at least for now all right well hopefully this will give sort of a final push to that deal kavan thank you so much for that as always that's our International Affairs editor there kavan gorgous Don