Ex-PA minister: Israel, Hamas were nearing deal on 4 Israelis held in Gaza before Oct. 7 onslaught
Sufian Abu Zaida says talks sought hostage deal and relief for Gaza; vows to reveal message Sinwar asked him to convey to Israel weeks before attack in upcoming TV interview
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Israel and Hamas had been nearing an agreement in talks that he was mediating before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks, former Palestinian Authority minister Sufian Abu Zaida said on Monday.
The contacts focused on a potential deal for the release of two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two IDF soldiers held in Gaza. In return, the sides had discussed Jerusalem releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, easing its blockade of Gaza, allowing more Palestinian workers to enter Israel and resolving the enclave’s electricity and water crises.
Seeking to distance the mediation effort from the October 7 onslaught, Abu Zaida said in a post on X that the negotiations had been intended to avert further deterioration in Gaza.
“We have no connection whatsoever to what happened on October 7, nor does it have anything to do with the role I played,” he wrote. “Everything I did was aimed at preventing Gaza from reaching the situation it is in today.”
Abu Zaida, a former PA prisoner affairs minister and member of a breakaway Fatah faction led by exiled Palestinian politician Mohammed Dahlan, revealed last week that he had served as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas for roughly a year and a half.
According to a Haaretz report earlier this month, Abu Zaida mediated between Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, who had been appointed by then-Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, and Shin Bet officials, in talks held with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval.
Abu Zaida also said Monday that he would discuss a previously undisclosed exchange involving Sinwar in an interview with Egypt’s Alghad TV set to air later this week. According to Abu Zaida, roughly three weeks before the October 7 onslaught, Sinwar asked him to pass a message to Israel, to which Israel subsequently responded.
Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar has identified Abu Zaida as the intermediary who, according to his reporting, conveyed a warning from Sinwar in September 2023 that Hamas was preparing a “massive surprise” if the negotiations did not advance. Eldar reported that the warning ultimately reached both the Shin Bet and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, who later allegedly raised the matter with Netanyahu in a purported 45-minute phone call.
Netanyahu has denied receiving any such warning from the Emirati president.
The Times of Israel Community.