A Hamas official said on Wednesday that Israel responded negatively to the Palestinian group’s latest proposal for a hostage deal and ceasefire.
Indirect negotiations have been taking place in Qatar, and according to a report from Axios, the deal that’s on the table would involve a six-week ceasefire, although there are major sticking points.
“On Tuesday evening, our brothers, the mediators, informed us of the occupation’s position on the proposal … it is a negative response in general and does not respond to the demands… In fact, it retracts the approvals it previously provided to the mediators,” said Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Beirut.
Hamdan blamed the impasse on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure from hardline members of his government not to reach a deal. According to Israel’s Channel 13, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have threatened to quit the government if a deal involves Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners who are serving long sentences.
The Axios report said that a US framework for a deal involved Israel releasing 400 Palestinians, including 15 who are serving life sentences, in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli hostages. Last Thursday, Hamas proposed Israel release 950 prisoners, including 150 who are serving life sentences.
Hamas is also reportedly asking Israel to withdraw troops from a corridor that the Israeli military created to split Gaza in two so displaced Palestinians could return to the north. Axios described the demand as one of the two “widest gaps” between the two sides, the other being Hamas’s insistence that the next phase of the deal includes a permanent ceasefire. Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed that any truce will only be temporary.
The Times of Israel reported that Mossad Director David Barnea returned from Qatar on Tuesday night and briefed the war cabinet on the hostage deal talks. The report said Israeli officials were pessimistic about the prospects of the deal and that they believe Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar thinks he has the upper hand in negotiations at the moment.
The lack of a ceasefire deal means many more Palestinians will die as the Israeli bombing campaign and starvation siege continues. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, nearly 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli slaughter, and about 70% of the casualties are women and children.
Anyone else feeling Israel really does not like those Israeli hostages by now? It reminds me of Trump saying he likes heroes who weren’t captured.
There will not be IMHO any deal made to save the Palestinians from their fate.Israel wants them gone and so it will be with the full cooperation of the US. The US and Israel are like two peas in a pod.
Turds floating in a toilet, thank you very much.
Even with a hostage/prisoner exchange and no-fire deal Israel is notorious to break ceasefires…! So, would it all make any difference…?!
None what so ever. The plan is to kill, “emigrate” (as in the early plans for the Jews by the NAZIs, implying specifically that the Zionists in Israel have become the mirror likeness of the NAZIs of 1938-44) the remaining Palestinians. Sacrifice of the Israeli hostages is plainly in the plan to get the 68% of Israelis who want more killing to get to higher level.
No better example than the ceasefire between Israel and Egypt signed in 1978. Israel broke it 0 times since then.
Netanyoyo has got to go.
And given your track record, I’m sure you believe Putin must stay.
And given your track record, Don Julio, Tim Burns, jake, which ever one pops up, you root for right wing abuse and evil the world over. Thanks to Bill Clinton, we have the mess in Ukraine and the bastardization of NATO. Thanks to Britain creating the conditions for the Nakba of 1948, subsequent occupation that has lasted 75 years, which the U.S. has supported, we have the genocide in Palestine.
If he goes now nothing will change what`s taking place now has been planned since they invaded and occupied Palestine in 1947 .
The “final solution” was put in place long ago. All that was needed was a “trigger”, like 7Oct, which the Israeli government knew about one year in advance. It was allowed. Period.
Sure Oct 7 was planned and permitted by Israel. Just like the moon landings are fake, outer space aliens are alive and well in Area 51 and the earth is flat. And of course your own personnel nut job idea that Jake, Don and myself are one in the same.
Unfortunately, the blame for genocide would shift away from it being their government’s mission and be placed on Netanyahu. But him leaving would be hard not to want.
Just like the blame for deaths and destruction shifted from Hamas for starting the war to Israel. No Oct 7 and 30,000 people would still be alive. But of course terrorists supporters ignore this simple fact and blame Israel for all the problems.
Nothing shifted from Hamas to Israel. Hamas is responsible for what Hamas did. Israel’s genocidal response is on Israel. No matter how hard you try to say otherwise, genocide is not acceptable under any circumstance. And once more, the terrorism supporter is you. Israel has no peers when it comes to terrorism. They have set new standards for terrorism including, but not limited to, mass starvation.
And, of course, I could point out this once more:
Netanyahu: “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told a meeting of his Likud party in 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”
No Bibi, no Hamas. No Oct 7th.
Israel responded negatively? Lol
Does that mean Israel responded like Hamas responded on 7 Oct?
Yeah, sort of that. 🙂
Gee, I forgot that Israel had been under occupation by the Palestinians for 75 years, and had a brutal blockade preventing Israel from having a wonderful carefree existence. My shame. /s
What Israel have live under is 75 years of terror attacks by Palestinians. There is nearly one every day.
The Zionists could careless about hostages they have a plan to wipe out the Palestinian People and they ain`t going to deviate from it , straight out of the American play book on GENOCIDE ask the Native Americans .
“wipe out the Palestinian people” Can you explain how the population of the Palestinians has increased substantially since 1948. Gaza alone has gone from 750,000 in 1948 to 2,500,000 now.