Hamas document details tactics to up pressure on Israel, stall hostage talks — report
According to Bild, terror organization seeks to introduce Arab forces to Strip to serve as buffer with Israel as it rebuilds, disregards Palestinian civilians
A newly revealed Hamas document indicates that the terror group’s main concern in ceasefire negotiations with Israel is to rehabilitate its military capabilities, and not to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population, German newspaper Bild reported Friday.
The spring 2024 document, which Bild said it had obtained exclusively, without offering further details, was reportedly found on a computer in Gaza that belonged to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
It articulates Hamas’s strategies and objectives in negotiations with Israel over a potential deal that would see hostages released in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
According to the report, Hamas is indifferent to whether the ongoing war ends quickly, instead prioritizing maintaining the terror group’s military capabilities, “exhausting” Israel’s military and political apparatuses, and increasing international pressure on Israel.
While the terror group admits in the paper that the war, going into its 12th month, has diminished its military capacities, Hamas still seeks to “improve important clauses in the agreement, even if the negotiations continue for an extended period.” Notably, Palestinian civilian casualties are not mentioned in the document.
The report also said Hamas lays out a strategy of psychological warfare through the hostages, calling to “continue to exert psychological pressure on the families of the [hostages], both now and in the first phase [of the ceasefire] so that public pressure on the enemy government increases.”
This strategy has been demonstrated through Hamas’s periodic publishing of videos of hostages pleading for their release. In the past week, Hamas has published such videos featuring hostages whose bodies were recently recovered from Gaza, days after they were executed by the terror group.
In the document, Hamas also plans talking points, blaming “Israel’s stubbornness” as delaying a deal. It also reportedly lists Hamas’s main objectives in a deal. One is securing the release of 100 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel serving life sentences, usually for murder.
Another purported Hamas goal is to have forces from Arab countries stationed along the Israel-Gaza border as part of a more permanent ceasefire, to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hamas, thus allowing Hamas to recuperate and reorganize under the protection of these forces.
Notably, Israel has also reportedly suggested that a coalition of Arab forces administrate the enclave at some point in the future. Unlike the Hamas proposal, the Israeli plan would see the Arab forces ensuring Hamas does not rehabilitate its military capabilities.
The report also noted that the document does not mention the Philadelphi Corridor, despite the strip of land on the Gaza-Egypt border recently becoming a key sticking point in negotiations. This may be attributed to the time the document was written, as Israel only took control of the Philadelphi Corridor in May.
War broke out on October 7 when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251.
It is believed that 97 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
