From the Liveblog of
Saturday, August 17, 2024
US ‘bridging proposal’ reportedly excludes two of PM’s key demands; says two pre-Oct. 7 hostages to go free
The US “bridging proposal” designed to enable the completion and implementation of a Gaza hostages-for-ceasefire deal includes most of Israel’s key demands, but does not provide for an ongoing Israeli presence along the Gaza-Egypt border and does not provide for a mechanism to prevent the return of armed Hamas forces to northern Gaza, Channel 12 news says in an unsourced report.
Only if Israel and the US, in another round of talks that is due to be held in Cairo tomorrow, can find agreed terms on these two key issues will Egypt and Qatar press Hamas to take the deal, the report says. Hamas has made clear that it will not agree to a deal that accommodates these two Israeli demands, the report says.
The TV report adds that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly insisted on these two demands in recent weeks, is expected to hold a fateful discussion with Israel’s negotiators and security chiefs, focused on these issues, before Israel’s negotiators head to Cairo.
He is also slated to hold talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is due to arrive in Israel tomorrow.
US officials have said that the return of armed Hamas forces to northern Gaza would constitute a violation of the deal. Israeli and other sources have said that Israel’s security chiefs believe withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza border for the six weeks of the deal’s first phase would not enable Hamas to significantly rearm, and that certain unspecified procedures along the border could compensate for an Israeli withdrawal from the border area.
The US, backed by fellow mediators Qatar and Egypt, conveyed its bridging proposal to Israel and Hamas on Friday after two days of summit talks in Doha. Israel and the mediators attended the summit; Hamas officials in Doha were updated on the progress of the talks there but did not directly participate.
Another such summit is tentatively scheduled, this time for Cairo, on Wednesday or Thursday, the TV report says. US officials have said they aim to finalize the long-sought deal by the end of this coming week.
According to tonight’s Channel 12 report, the “bridging proposal” covers numerous highly specific issues regarding the deal. Among these, it specifies how many living Israeli hostages will go free in the first, six-week phase of the deal; it has previously been widely reported that some 30 women, elderly and sick hostages will be freed. The names of almost all these hostages have also been largely determined, the report says.
The proposal also specifies the order in which hostages will be freed, with women — including female soldiers — to be released first.
The proposal reflects progress, too, on which Palestinian security prisoners are to be released in exchange for the hostages.
The TV report says that Ethiopian Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin Israeli Hisham al-Sayed, civilians who have been held in Gaza for the past decade, would also go free in the first phase of the deal. In return, it says, 47 Palestinian security prisoners, released in the 2011 deal to secure the freedom of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who have been rearrested since, would be freed as part of the deal.
The report stresses that these elements in the bridging proposal have been agreed by Israel and the mediators — but not by Hamas.
