From the Liveblog of
Friday, January 24, 2025
PM holds consultations on how to respond to Hamas violation of hostage deal
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Israel’s security chiefs are reportedly holding consultations regarding how to respond to the list of female hostages Hamas released that violates the terms of the deal.
The agreement requires Hamas to release all of the female civilian hostages before moving on to the category of female soldiers, followed by elderly hostages, followed by seriously ill hostages.
On Wednesday, Israel conveyed to Hamas that it expects the terror group to free hostage Arbel Yehud in this weekend’s release of four hostages.
Yehud is among the civilian hostages held by Gaza terrorists, and, as a female civilian, should be in the next batch freed. However, she is thought to be held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group and not Hamas, apparently leading to concern in Jerusalem that Hamas may attempt to put off her release.
Israel has a host of options before it regarding how to respond to the Hamas violation.
It could pull out of its commitment to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza tomorrow or it could change or limit the list of Palestinian prisoners it is supposed to release in return for the four hostages.
For each of the living female civilian hostages, the deal provides for Israel to release 30 Palestinian prisoners. For each of the living female IDF soldiers, 50 prisoners are to be released. The prisoners to be freed in exchange for living female soldiers include Palestinians serving life sentences for murder and other acts of terror.
