Netanyahu Offers $5 Million Reward to Any Palestinians Who Free Israeli Hostages

19 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, -: Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu visits Netzarim Corridor in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Ma'ayan Toaf/GPO/dpa
19 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, -: Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu visits Netzarim Corridor in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Ma'ayan Toaf/GPO/dpa
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Netanyahu Offers $5 Million Reward to Any Palestinians Who Free Israeli Hostages

19 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, -: Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu visits Netzarim Corridor in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Ma'ayan Toaf/GPO/dpa
19 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, -: Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu visits Netzarim Corridor in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Ma'ayan Toaf/GPO/dpa

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a $5 million reward and one-way ticket out of Gaza to Palestinians who free Israeli hostages held in the territory.

Netanyahu made the offer during a tour of central Gaza on Tuesday.

Israel says Hamas continues to hold 101 hostages, roughly one-third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel has vowed to press ahead with its war, which has devastated Gaza, until all hostages are free.

“I also say to those who want to get out of this maze: Whoever brings us a hostage will find a safe way, he and his family, to get out,” Netanyahu said. “We will also give a reward of $5 million for each hostage.”

Families of the hostages have accused Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring their loved-ones home, and tens of thousands of Israelis regularly take to the streets calling on him to reach a deal.

A former aide to Netanyahu has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified materials to foreign media over the summer in an apparent effort to scuttle a deal.

Critics accuse Netanyahu of dragging his feet because a deal would likely lead to the collapse of his hardline government and the launch of an official investigation into the government’s failures ahead of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Netanyahu rejects the criticism and says he is doing his utmost to free them.



Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
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Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)

A Syrian doctor who had practiced in Germany was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Monday for crimes against humanity and war crimes after he was found guilty of torturing dissidents in Syria.

The 40-year-old, identified only as Alaa M. in accordance with German privacy laws, was found guilty of killing two people and torturing another eight during his time working in Syria as a doctor at a military hospital and detention center in Homs in 2011 and 2012.

The court said his crimes were part of a systematic attack against people protesting against then-President Bashar al-Assad that precipitated the country's civil war.

Assad was toppled in December. His government denied it tortured prisoners.

Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015, after fleeing to Germany among a large influx of Syrian refugees, and became one of roughly 10,000 Syrian medics who helped ease acute staff shortages in the country's healthcare system.

He was arrested in June 2020, and was handed a life sentence without parole, the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt said in a statement.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty, saying he was the target of a conspiracy.

German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

They have targeted several former Syrian officials in similar cases in recent years.

The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR lawyer Patrick Kroker called Monday's ruling "a further step towards a comprehensive reckoning with Assad's crimes".

Judges found that the doctor caused "considerable physical suffering" as a result of the torture inflicted on his victims, which included serious beatings, mistreating wounds and inflicting serious injury to the genitals of two prisoners, one of whom was a teenage boy.

Two patients died after he gave them lethal medication, the court statement said.

Monday's ruling can be appealed.