Does sanity finally prevail? Israel will likely offer Hamas a deal to release 20 hostages, a TV network claims

epa11300497 An Israeli tank at a gathering location on the southern Israeli border with the Gaza Strip near Rafah, 25 April 2024. EPA, ATEF SAFADI

An Israeli TV station broadcast yesterday Thursday that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu may propose a limited deal to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in order to secure the release of at least twenty hostages.

According to the information transmitted by Channel 12, the proposal will specifically concern women, who serve in the army, the elderly and the sick, who are among the hostages. In exchange, the Israeli government will offer to allow displaced Gazans to return to the northern part of the enclave, under siege for more than six months.

Always according to the Israeli television network, the idea was discussed at a meeting of Mr. Netanyahu’s wartime government and he is preparing to forward a proposal to the mediators — Qatar, Egypt, the United States — immediately. The Israeli government is thus trying to circumvent Hamas’ demand that a permanent ceasefire be declared before the hostages are released.

The Channel 12 report did not specify whether the proposal would include a temporary cease-fire, how long it would last, or whether or how many Palestinians held in Israeli prisons would be released in exchange.

However, a meeting between Israeli negotiators and the Egyptian delegation is expected to be organized within the day, in order to make an effort to remove the deadlock in the indirect negotiations, which has remained absolute for months.

The Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, demands, among other things, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip in order to proceed with the release of the remaining hostages remaining in the hands of its fighters. The Israeli government rejects these requests and declares that the war that broke out on October 7 will continue.

According to Israeli media, Cairo is pressing for a deal to prevent a planned Israeli military operation in Rafah, on the southern edge of the enclave, on the Gaza Strip’s closed border with Egypt, as it worries that large numbers of Palestinians will cross the border. refugees.

Most of the inhabitants of the Palestinian region, almost one and a half million people, the vast majority of them displaced due to the war, have taken refuge in Rafah.

RES-MPE-dpa
Tel Aviv, Israel