Israel would ‘swap’ Oct 7 planner for hostages
Tel Aviv willing to let Hamas leader in Gaza leave territory in exchange for release of all captives
ISRAEL has offered to let Hamas leaders in Gaza go into exile in exchange for the release of all hostages and an end to the group’s rule in the enclave, sources said.
A proposal to allow Yahyah Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, to leave was sent to the group in November and is still on the table, Israeli officials and senior advisers told NBC News.
The plan appears to contradict rhetoric from Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who last night rejected a ceasefire with Hamas, claiming that Israel was “within months” of a “complete victory” in Gaza.
He also ordered troops to be ready to deploy in Rafah, in Gaza’s southernmost corner, where more than a million refugees are thought to be sheltering.
Israel carried out air strikes on the city yesterday, targeting Hamas police in the centre. A former IDF official said that taking Rafah was essential for dismantling Hamas.
The Israelis have long stated that one of their main goals is to find and kill Sinwar, who they believe to be the mastermind and architect of the devastating attack on Israel on Oct 7.
On Monday, Yaov Gallant, the defence minister, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is on Sinwar’s trail after discovering hideouts he has used.
The proposed plan for his release bears a resemblance to Israel’s agreement to let Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Liberation Organisation leave Beirut in 1982 on a ship to Tunisia.
Despite Israel painting Mr Arafat as an arch-enemy at the time, it agreed to a mediated deal to let him and hundreds of his fighters go into exile.
An unnamed senior adviser to Mr Netanyahu was quoted by NBC as saying Israel “doesn’t mind if [Sinwar] will leave like Arafat left Lebanon” as long as the hostages are released.
Israel reportedly suggested the exile of Sinwar, the head of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, Mohammed Deif and four other leaders to US officials at talks in Paris last week. But they did not present the proposal formally to Hamas because its representatives previously ruled out the possibility of an exile.
The proposal is said to be one of the ideas Israel privately floated for postwar settlement in Gaza, including replacing the Hamas administration with hand-picked civilian leaders.
Israeli officials believe that Hamas leaders are hiding beneath Khan Younis and Rafah, the only major city in Gaza unaffected by an IDF ground invasion.
IDF air strikes on Rafah yesterday morning killed at least 11 people in two houses. Tanks also shelled some areas in the eastern part of the city, intensifying the residents’ fears of an imminent ground assault.
The military views the city as a missing piece of the puzzle to destroy Hamas capabilities, a former IDF official said.
“Rafah is like an oxygen tank for Gaza – not only in terms of humanitarian aid but also in terms of Hamas’s underground tunnels,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.
“Hamas still has operatives there who can operate in an organised manner. If you want to dismantle Hamas’s organised military capabilities, then you need to go down to Rafah and destroy [Hamas infrastructure] like we did in Khan Younis and northern Gaza.” He acknowledged, however, the sensitive nature of operating there owing to the large number of civilians in the city.
Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned on Wednesday that expanding fighting into Rafah on the border with Egypt would “increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences” while the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Thursday launching a group operation there would turn Rafah into a “zone of bloodshed and destruction that people won’t be able to escape”.
Recent satellite images show thousands of tents pitched from the southwest edge of Rafah all the way to the Mediterranean coast. At least half of Gaza’s pre-war 2.2 million inhabitants have reportedly fled there.