Israel may let Hamas choose next hostages to be freed in talks on new truce – report
Mossad chief said slated to meet with Qatari PM for preliminary negotiations this week in Europe, following reported meet in Norway; relatives of hostages sit with Gantz, Gallant
Israel and Hamas are reportedly open in principle to a new temporary ceasefire agreement that would include the release of hostages held by the Gaza-ruling terror group since its unprecedented massacres in southern Israel on October 7. But negotiations on any such deal are expected to be protracted and complex with no guarantee of success
Two Egyptian sources told Reuters in a report Sunday that Hamas is insisting on unilaterally deciding on the next hostages to be freed and wants Israeli troops to withdraw to pre-set lines. According to the sources, Israel rejected the latter term, but accepted the first: “While Israel agreed on Hamas setting the list, the sources said it demanded a timeline and to see the list before setting the time and duration of the ceasefire,” Reuters reported.
Under the previous temporary truce brokered by Qatar and Egypt in late November, Hamas released 105 civilians of the roughly 240 hostages taken from Israel on October 7 over the course of seven days, in return for a pause in fighting, an increase in humanitarian aid to the Strip, and the release of Palestinian prisoners on a 3-to-1 ratio, women and underaged males. Eighty of the released hostages were Israelis freed under the specific deal, and thus 240 Palestinian women and underage security prisoners were freed.
A majority of the hostages released between November 24 and December 1 were Israeli women and children, in groups of between 10 and 12 daily. The terror group also freed foreign nationals, a majority Thai, as part of separate agreements that did not involve Israel.
During the weeklong truce, Hamas would send a list of hostages set for release the next day for Israel’s approval. The pause in fighting collapsed ahead of the eighth day after Hamas failed to propose a list of hostages set for release that would be acceptable to Israel, as stipulated in the deal to first release all women and children, and instead sent a message through Qatari and Egyptian mediators that it was prepared to release male hostages. Hamas had also proposed to release bodies of hostages it said were killed during captivity.
Israel charges that Hamas violated the deal by refusing to release at least 10 more female hostages, and two remaining children — the youngest hostages.
Fighting resumed early on December 1, when Hamas fired rockets before the truce had formally expired. The war was triggered by Hamas’s massacre of some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on October 7 in southern Israel and the abduction of about 240 people. Israel has vowed to eliminate the terror group, and is waging a wide-scale air and ground offensive in Gaza.
It is believed that 128 hostages remain in the Palestinian enclave — not all of them alive — following the truce deal that freed 105. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 21 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
The Reuters report Sunday said that Egypt and Qatar demanded that aid shipments to Gaza be expedited and that Israel reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza as conditions for restarting negotiations. Following US pressure, the first humanitarian convoy since October 7 entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom earlier Sunday.
Reports of initial talks
Reports have swirled in recent days that efforts for another hostage deal are underway.
Mossad chief David Barnea was widely reported to have met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Norway on Friday night to discuss the possibility of a new deal.
Citing two sources, the Wall Street Journal said that the talks “are just the beginning” and that the process would be “long, difficult and complicated.” One of the sources added that CIA director Bill Burns and Egypt’s Intelligence Minister General Abbas Kamel were briefed on the meeting and are helping in the renewed push for a deal.
Qatar hosts Hamas’s political bureau and doubles as the main residence of its self-exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh, as well as its former leader Khaled Mashaal. The country is one of Hamas’s main backers, transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to the terror group annually.
Due to their close ties, the wealthy Gulf monarchy, a US ally that also hosts a large American military base, has acted as a communications channel with Hamas.
Israel’s high-level war cabinet, comprising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz, as well as several observers, met Saturday night to discuss the possibility of a renewed push for a deal.
Barnea is expected to travel again to Europe in the coming days for talks with Al-Thani, according to Hebrew media reports Sunday. The reports said Barnea will be accompanied by Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who is commanding intelligence efforts to find the abductees.
Public broadcaster Kan on Sunday also reported that any talks between the Mossad chief and the Qatari PM would be very preliminary.
Citing sources familiar with the issues, Haaretz reported that Israel does not have high hopes for a new hostage deal but that could change.
“Both Israel and Hamas are not currently in a situation that allows for a return to negotiations,” a source familiar with the talks told Haaretz. “As things stand, a deal may mature in just a few weeks. But it is important to remember that, in such matters, the schedule is fluid and may be shortened if there are new developments.”
Israeli leaders have insisted since the collapse of the previous release deal on December 1 that there had been no realistic proposal from Hamas for further releases, with the group making demands Israel could not accept, far beyond the release of top Palestinian prisoners. Defense officials have maintained that the best strategy to bring Hamas to the table was a massive increase of military pressure on the group through the Gaza offensive.
Hamas has also appeared to toughen its position, with some of the group’s officials indicating the war would need to end before it entertains the idea of any more releases.
The group doubled down on this position Saturday, issuing an official statement saying it would not agree to another deal “unless the aggression against our people stops once and for all.” The statement said Hamas has communicated this stance to mediators.
Kan reported Sunday that Hamas’s political leaders, who live in Qatar and in Lebanon, met in Turkey on Saturday to discuss the war and the potential new hostage deal.
Long, complicated road ahead
One of the sources who spoke to Haaretz said any negotiations with Hamas via mediators will be “long, complicated, and complex” and will not resemble the previous deal.
Israel has reportedly not ruled out the possibility of offering to release more significant Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of killing Israelis in terror attacks or masterminding them, if this leads to a significant deal, both Haaretz and Kan reported Sunday.
Kan has also reported, citing Egyptian officials, that Egyptian and Qatari officials offered a new deal to Hamas in recent days, which would see the release of elderly and sick men and the remaining women and children in exchange for the release of senior Palestinian prisoners.
It was not clear whether the offer was made after consultations with Israel.
Israel’s apparent renewed push for a hostage deal comes after three escaped hostages, Yotam Haim, Samar Fouad Talalka and Alon Shamriz, were accidentally killed by IDF troops operating in northern Gaza’s Shejaiya neighborhood on Friday morning. The soldiers erroneously identified the three men as a threat and opened fire, killing them.
An initial IDF probe into their deaths found that the three hostages were shirtless and waving a white flag when they were shot.
The incident shocked the country and brought on fresh urgent calls by the families of hostages to immediately secure the return of the other hostages.
On Saturday night, thousands rallied in Tel Aviv at the Kirya military headquarters calling for a hostage deal.
Channel 12 reported Sunday that Israel’s unpopular point man on hostages held in Gaza, Gal Hirsch, made an appeal to families of hostages to “stop protesting” at a meeting earlier in the day.
“You have to stop the protest. You have no one to protest against, the government is doing everything it can to free the hostages,” Hirsch told family representatives, according to the report.
A representative reportedly responded: “It’s not a protest. We are not against the government. We are in support of the country doing everything it can to return them.”
‘There’s no time’
Channel 12 also reported on Sunday on what it said were excerpts from a meeting held Saturday by Gallant and Gantz with a small group that included released hostages and relatives of hostages still in Gaza where the participants urged the ministers to present an Israeli initiative for another hostage deal.
An unnamed released hostage was quoted saying to the ministers: “There’s no time. Every passing day is terrifying. You have no idea what kind of monsters we are dealing with. If they’re feeling threatened, they will use the captives. They scared us that the IDF would use the Hannibal Directive on civilians, and therefore we were scared when the [IDF] bombings were close. They were so close that we begged them to take us [from the building in which we were held] into the tunnels [for safety], and at one stage they did.
“Don’t go into the tunnels. They are moving around in there in vast numbers. It’s a colossal danger to soldiers and to hostages,” she added.
Gantz replied: “The issue of the hostages has priority. I won’t stay in a place [i.e., in the coalition] where there is a possibility to get something done [in terms of releasing hostages] and it’s not done. First, the hostages have to be returned. We’ll have a lifetime to battle Hamas.”
Another participant said: “[Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya] Sinwar is of no interest.”
Gantz: “We won’t be able to wipe out the idea [of Hamas] except with another, better idea. It’s a long process. Sinwar has entered the pantheon of Islam, as the third warrior. And after him there will be others… But he’s not the story. The story is also to eliminate the idea.”
Another participant said: “Why don’t you present a framework [for a deal on further hostage releases]?”
“That’s certainly something that we could do,” Gantz responded, according to the report.
Gallant said: “There was no framework of ‘all for all’ [as in, all hostages freed in exchange for all Palestinian security prisoners]. There’s a leadership there that has no consideration for its civilians. Its goal is to break Israeli society. I’m prepared to give a lot, but I won’t discuss it publicly.”
