Hamas deal could see 20-for-1 hostage swap
Hamas could free 40 Israeli hostages in return for the release of up to 800 Palestinian prisoners, Israeli and Lebanese media have reported.
Quoting government officials, Israeli media said the freed prisoners could include hundreds serving life sentences for terrorist attacks.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli negotiators in Qatar signed off on a United States compromise specifying the number of Palestinians who would be freed for each Israeli.
Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar reported that the original blueprint submitted by Hamas to mediators proposed a 42-day initial ceasefire, followed by a permanent one. It also reported that Hamas proposed releasing 50 Palestinians for each Israeli hostage.
Israel had initially described Hamas’s demands as “absurd”.
Previous talks, via mediators, with Hamas broke down over the terrorist group’s demand for a permanent ceasefire and its refusal to provide a list of captives it still held. Israel, which is committed to the complete destruction of Hamas, had been reluctant to agree to a permanent end to the fighting.
However, negotiations resumed on March 15, after Hamas submitted revised proposals dropping its demand for a permanent ceasefire. Israel responded by sending a delegation to Qatar to resume talks.
The Israeli government has found itself under pressure from a group representing the families of the hostages, who have urged the coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the deal.
More than 240 hostages were seized by Hamas on October 7 last year in a raid in which an estimated 1200 people were killed, sparking the Gaza war.
A temporary truce late last year saw more than 100 hostages freed. At least four have died in captivity, and around another 100 are still being held.
If confirmed, the agreement would see hostages released in batches. The first tranche of about 40 would be women, including Israeli soldiers, along with the elderly sick and wounded.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant headed to Washington yesterday at a time of increasingly strained relations with his country’s main military backer and ally, as Israel continues to defy US calls to reduce the suffering in Gaza.
Gallant was to meet with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior officials, the Israeli government said.
Gallant’s visit, which the Israeli government said was at Austin’s invitation, comes after Blinken and Israeli leaders confronted one another at the weekend over the trajectory of the war.
On a trip to Tel Aviv, the top US diplomat called on Israel not to invade the crowded city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, where nearly 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, warning that “it risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardising its long-term security”.
A separate Israeli delegation, including Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and the head of the National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, also left for Washington, an Israeli official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The visit was requested by US President Joe Biden so officials could “hear US concerns about Israel’s current Rafah planning and to lay out an alternative approach”, Sullivan said. Israel has proposed moving displaced families in Rafah to “humanitarian islands” in other parts of the enclave.
Netanyahu, addressing the nation yesterday on the Jewish holiday of Purim, said: “It is impossible to defeat the sheer evil [of Hamas] by leaving it intact in Rafah. We will enter Rafah and achieve total victory.”
Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued in other parts of southern Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet, Israel’s military intelligence agency, launched an operation in the al-Amal neighbourhood in Khan Younis, the IDF said. The operation involved air strikes on about 40 targets, including military compounds and underground tunnels. The IDF said its troops were “encircling the area and continuing to eliminate” militants.
Israeli forces were also operating in northern Khan Younis, in the al-Qarara area, the IDF said, saying troops killed militants with tanks and conducted air strikes targeting facilities it said were used by Hamas for weapons storage.
Fighting was also reported near health facilities in Khan Younis. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces were “besieging” al-Amal Hospital, using bulldozers and smoke bombs while demanding via drones that everyone inside evacuate.
The IDF said it was not currently operating in hospitals in the al-Amal area, and called on Hamas to “cease using hospitals” and other civilian infrastructure as shields. Gaza’s Ministry of Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In Gaza City, Israel said its raid of al-Shifa Hospital continued. The nearly week-long military operation has prompted alarm from global health officials and increasingly desperate appeals from patients and displaced residents trapped in the medical complex.
Health services at al-Shifa, once Gaza’s largest and best-equipped hospital, were only recently restored to minimal levels, the World Health Organisation said, after an Israeli attack on the facility in November. The Israeli military said its forces had apprehended 480 suspects in the latest raid and had “located weapons” and stockpiles of cash in the hospital.
At least 32,226 people have been killed and 74,518 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says 252 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation.
– Telegraph Group, Washington Post