There are new glimmers of hope that a new deal could be reached to release the 130 or so Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza
Published 12/12/23
A new round of secretive hostage talks mediated by Qatar are taking place in Europe, a Saudi news outlet reported, and a deal could see the release of Israeli women, children, and elderly civilians, as well as three senior Israeli army officers kidnapped by Hamas. In return, the report adds, Israel would release about 300 Palestinian prisoners, along with 10 prisoners serving long sentences, including senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.
The report in the independent outlet Elaph has not been confirmed, and no new deal appears imminent.
A key sticking point appears to be the number of Palestinian prisoners that would be exchanged for each Israeli hostage in Gaza. Elaph said its correspondent learned that Hamas has submitted its requests to the Qataris, while the Israelis are “trying to reduce the price as much as possible,” according to the source.
Hamas has also repeated its assertions that it doesn’t hold all the hostages, and that some are in the hands of other militant groups and possibly local criminal gangs, the website reported.
"Time is running out," said Yocheved Lifshitz, an 85-year-old peace activist who was taken hostage by Hamas in Gaza and released after two weeks. "They need to get out today. Otherwise, they won’t survive," she said in an interview with NBC News on Monday.
"The lack of air in the tunnels, as well as the shortage of food and medicine, could bring people to complete exhaustion," she said.
"And they just won’t make it."
Relatives of hostages on Monday met with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, where they called for the government to press for their release through talk or diplomatic channels, warning that using troops to rescue hostages won’t work. An effort to free hostages last week led to the death of one hostage, an Israeli army soldier, and left two rescuers wounded.
Hamas said none of the Israelis will return home alive unless Israel agrees to a prisoner exchange.
“Neither the fascist enemy and its arrogant leadership... nor the supporters behind them... can take their prisoners alive without exchanging, negotiating, and agreeing to the terms of the resistance," Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said in an audio clip posted on Sunday on the Telegram channel of Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam brigades.
About 120 Israelis are believed to still be held hostage in Gaza, along with the bodies of 18 hostages who have died in captivity, Israeli media reports.
“We saw the fruits of the deal,” Yifat Zeiler, a relative of the Bibas family, thought to have been killed in captivity, said of the November truce after the meeting with parliamentarians. “A military operation will not yield these results right now, not alone.”
“Every day is significant,” Zeiler added. “What will happen if my family comes back in a bag because we waited another day and didn’t agree to a deal? What will happen to the morale of the soldiers if they return in coffins because we waited another day and they were murdered by terrorists or God forbid by fire from our forces? This is a tragedy.”
Journalist Barak Ravid said on X that Qatar has been talking to Israeli officials about a hostage deal that could pause the fighting for more than a day.
Ravid said he was told a deal could include “humanitarian elements” such as Hamas handing over elderly and sick or wounded men, as well as women and the remaining children in captivity. He added that Israel had “expressed willingness” to discuss a deal.
Ceasefire talks broke down and hostage-for-prisoner exchanges ended at the end of November when Israel and Hamas couldn't agree on acceptable lists of hostages to be handed over, and rockets were once again fired at Israel from Gaza.
Israel’s Channel 12 news, known to be close to the government, said “conditions are ripe” for beginning to draft new agreements. According to the channel, Mossad chief David Barnea and Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, the Israel Defense Forces point person on hostage talks, have been “directed to hear what the intermediaries are proposing,” but not to initiate proposals of their own.
On Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani said efforts to restart ceasefire talks were continuing despite the ongoing war in Gaza.
“We are not going to give up,” Al Thani told the Doha Forum, a regional political meeting, on Sunday. But he added that “the continuation of the bombardment is just narrowing this window for us.
And on Sunday and Monday, Russian deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, spoke with leaders of Hamas and other Gaza factions, asking that it release captives with Russian passports. Several of the Israelis are known to be dual nationals.
The Israeli delegation includes officers from the Mossad foreign intelligence service, the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, and representatives from the National Security Council, Israeli military intelligence, and the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Elaph wrote.
The Qatari delegation includes officers from Qatar’s Amiri Diwan intelligence service.
The meetings are taking place in Europe after previous ceasefire talks in Doha, Qatar and repeated visits of Mossad head David Barne to Doha led to criticism in Israel, the newspaper said.
Even as talks in Doha faltered and the war resumed, Israel agreed to keep channels open, but the meetings are meant to be secret, changing locations to stay out of the public eye.
No comments:
Post a Comment