Netanyahu said set to huddle with top brass Thursday to discuss Gaza deal latest

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to hold a high-level meeting on Thursday with top security officials as efforts to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas appeared to gather momentum, Israeli television reported Wednesday.

Netanyahu’s planned assessment, which will include Defense Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, comes as CIA chief William Burns reportedly arrived in Qatar Wednesday night to try and hammer out the outstanding issues. Channel 12 news said that if there was progress, senior Israeli officials would join the talks.

And in a sign of the approaching endgame, Netanyahu has reduced the number of people involved in the negotiating efforts and instructed them not to share any details about the talks, the network said, noting the insistence was out of concern that far-right members of his coalition could step up pressure to torpedo the deal as it nears.

Despite optimism that a deal can be reached in the next few weeks, the report said there are still disagreements on several key issues including the number and identity of the hostages to be freed; a mechanism for the return of displaced Gazans to the north of the strip; the identity of the Palestinian security prisoners to be released as part of the deal; and a mechanism for exiling the most dangerous of those prisoners to other countries.

An Israeli official with knowledge of the details told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that Hamas was showing some flexibility in the talks.

The terror group understands that a deal will mean a ceasefire, but not an end to the war, at least in the first phase, said the official, attributing the flexibility to diplomatic and military pressure and Hamas’s isolation.

“Will that be enough to lead to a deal? We don’t know. In the end, the ball is in Hamas’s court,” the official said.

Hamas has in the past insisted it will not agree to any deal that does not guarantee an end to the war.

Arab and Israeli officials said Tuesday that the terror group has shown flexibility regarding the terms of an IDF withdrawal from Gaza, indicating it is prepared to allow Israeli troops to remain in the key Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors during the first phase of the deal after long demanding their immediate pullout from those routes.

“If Hamas says, ‘Come to a deal now,’ there will be a deal today,” said the official, adding that there are currently “open conversations” among working groups in Qatar.

Israel is working through both mediating countries, Qatar and Egypt, because it doesn’t know who will make the final call — Hamas’s leadership abroad, who have resided in Qatar, or the group’s leadership in Gaza, which is closer to Egypt.

But despite positive signs, the deal could fall apart, cautioned the official. “They’ve refused every deal that was offered to them in this stage. They could still get cold feet and run away from it.”

Hamas officials also indicated Wednesday that there was progress in the talks.

The Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen news outlet in Lebanon quoted an unnamed senior Hamas official as saying that there has been considerable progress in the negotiations for a phased hostage release and ceasefire deal with Israel.

According to the official, Israel’s demand during the first stage of the deal is for the release of 34 hostages on humanitarian grounds — chiefly all remaining women and children, including female IDF soldiers, and the sick and elderly.

It was not immediately clear from the statements whether Hamas has agreed or would be able to release that number of hostages.

Channel 12 reported that Israel was now willing for the bodies of dead hostages to be included in the first round.

In return, Israel would release an unconfirmed number of Palestinian security prisoners, including some serving life sentences, Al Mayadeen reported.

The Hamas official claimed that during the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, Israel would allow a significantly increased flow of humanitarian aid to enter the Strip, as well as the equipment needed to repair and rebuild Gaza’s hospitals and public facilities.

The official also said that Israel has also agreed to withdraw from densely populated areas in the Strip during the first phase of the deal.

US optimism

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday said reaching a deal soon is possible, but that it depends on Hamas.

“We’re wary of making predictions or promises, but this is close,” he said, speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And with enough pushing from the outside mediators, and the commitment of Israel and Hamas, we can get it done.”

The White House official, who recently returned from a trip to Israel, said, “Israel is ready to do this deal. So the final piece of the puzzle, from my perspective, is for Hamas ultimately to come forward with a commitment on the release of hostages in that first phase of a multi-phase deal,” specifying that the first-phase would involve “all of those who are women, elderly, and wounded and sick.”

“Until [Hamas] confirm they are prepared to do that, we remain in this position where we’re close to the finish line, but not over it,” Sullivan said.

US President Joe Biden, asked by reporters on Wednesday, whether he’ll speak with Netanyahu about the talks before the inauguration of his successor, Donald Trump, next month, responded, “I spoke with [Netanyahu] and we’ll speak again.”

The last call between the two leaders read out by the White House was on November 26, the day the US announced a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

It was unclear whether Biden was referring instead to a recent call with Netanyahu that has not yet been publicized.

Channel 12, quoting unnamed Israeli sources, said that while Israeli officials had also been meeting with envoys of US President-elect Donald Trump in recent days, it was Biden administration officials who were pushing this final drive to a deal.

The officials said that they had been surprised by the Trump envoys lack of grasp of the finer details of the issue, adding further urgency to complete the agreement before he comes into office on January 20th.

Opposition from the right

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich came out on Wednesday against the potential ceasefire-hostage deal, calling it a “serious error.”

“It’s a serious error that neither serves the goals and interests of the State of Israel in the war, nor [brings] the return of the hostages, because in the end it is a partial deal,” he told the Haredi radio station Kol Barama,

“Hamas is at its lowest point since the beginning of the war, and this is not the time to give it a lifeline,” he said, adding that Netanyahu “knows what our red lines are; we [Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party] have a great influence over the government’s moves.”

A group of hostages’ families also urged the government on Wednesday not to sign a phased deal, expressing fear that unless all hostages are released in one fell swoop, their loved ones would not survive even more captivity upon the resumption of fighting.

“We say to the prime minister: If you intend to bring back all the hostages in one day, at once — we support it. But if you plan to go for another deal with stages and phases, where we don’t know if we’ll get our loved ones back, and if you plan to fall into Hamas’s trap again, we will oppose any such deal that endangers the hostages,” said Tzvika Mor, of the Tikva Forum, at a press conference. Mor’s son Eitan is held in Gaza.

The Tikva Forum represents a hawkish minority of hostages’ families who back the government’s declared objective to use overwhelming military might to force Hamas into releasing the captives abducted on October 7. That position is not shared by the larger Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which warns that military action endangers the lives of remaining hostages.

לחץ צבאי.
מצור מלא.
גביית מחיר כואב מהאויב.
עסקה אחת, ביום אחד. pic.twitter.com/jzmFxgcjIN

— פורום תקווה (@forum_tikva) December 18, 2024

Despite the opposition, there has been broad public support for a deal, even if it means ending the war.

Thousands of students at middle schools and high schools across the country, meanwhile, held walkouts on Wednesday in a call for the hostages to be freed. According to Channel 12, students at some 200 schools participated in the action.

At the Blich High School in Ramat Gan, students held banners reading “we won’t learn to live with this” and “we are sorry you aren’t home.”

The protests were the initiative of student councils and marked the second birthday in captivity of hostage Matan Zangauker, whose mother Einav is one of the most prominent voices opposing further military pressure in place of a ceasefire-hostage deal.

Speaking at a protest held by the students at Kfar Hayarok, north of Tel Aviv, she said, “We should all make a wish that [Matan] will be the last hostage to celebrate a birthday in captivity.”

‘Matan, you don’t deserve to rot in there’

Hundreds also demonstrated in Tel Aviv to mark Matan Zangauker’s 25th birthday, with his sister Natalie addressing the crowd — the first time she has spoken publicly at a hostage protest event.

“A little sister shouldn’t have to fight for her brother’s life,” she said through sobs. “Matan, you don’t deserve to rot in there for so long.”

“I miss coming to visit you in Nir Oz and spending the weekends with you, I miss cooking for you and the fact that you would always ask me how I am and where I’m going.”

“I miss your music, and that you never wanted to take pictures with me. I want it all back. I want you back. I miss you so much,” she continued, stopping briefly as the crowd chanted “you are not alone!” in a show of support.

“Your prime minister, who I spoke to during the elections, who I admired so much, betrayed us,” she said of Netanyahu. “Matan, we are fighting for you. Every day. I promise.”

Yifat Calderon, the cousin of hostage Ofer Calderon, also addressed the crowd of protesters, recalling how she and Einav “became family” over the last year of tireless activism for the return of their loved ones.

She said that she brought a birthday cake that Matan and Ofer “will eat together” upon their return from captivity.

As Yifat Calderon spoke, Einav Zangauker could be seen breaking down in tears in the crowd, where she was comforted by released hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husband Oded is still in captivity.