An Israeli channel reported on Saturday evening that concluding a deal to exchange Israeli prisoners and detainees with Hamas now will prevent the outbreak of a regional war.

On Saturday, Channel 13 quoted a security source as saying that "concluding the exchange deal now will prevent the outbreak of a regional war, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to make concessions and is acting forcefully with the detainees' file and does not want to conclude that deal with Hamas."

The channel added on its website that "Netanyahu made a decision to give up the detainees despite the desire of all parties to conclude a deal with Hamas."

In the same context, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid stated on Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "continues to delay the deal to return the detainees, for political reasons only," according to him.

“The heads of the security services must come out and tell the public the truth,” Lapid added on the X platform, explaining that “if the Israeli government has abandoned the detainees, it must be honest with their families and stop playing games.” Lapid has been highly critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza and in the north, telling the Knesset earlier last month that “this government has failed in managing the country, the war, the economy, and our relations with America, and it is losing the detainees, who are lost, killed, and dying underground.”