ISRAEL PREPARED TO FREE CLOSE TO 800 PALESTINIAN SECURITY PRISONERS FOR 40 HOSTAGES: REPORT

Sun 24 March 2024:

Israel has conveyed a detailed document to Hamas setting out its positions on all three phases of a deal for the release of all hostages, Channel 12 reports, saying that Israel has shown new flexibility in several key areas.

It quotes unnamed sources saying Israel anticipates a response from Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar in the next three days, and considers the prospects for a deal to be 50-50.

Where last month’s Paris framework had provided for the release of 400 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for 40 hostages — women, children, the sick and elderly — in the first phase of a deal, during a 6-week truce, Israel is now ready to free “almost double that number,” Channel 12 reports, including 100 murderers. Other Hebrew media reports suggest Israel is prepared to release 700 security prisoners in return for the 40.

The TV report adds that for the first time in the negotiations, Israel has said it is willing to discuss allowing Palestinians who evacuated to avoid fighting to return to northern Gaza. Quoting an unnamed senior source close to the talks, Channel 12 says there would be unspecified conditions for civilians returning to the north of the Strip and that men would likely not be permitted to return. Israel has ruled out a full return of Gazans to the north of the Strip as part of the deal, the report stresses.

Crucially, it adds, Israel continues to hold to “red lines” that rule out a complete IDF withdrawal from Gaza, and insists that the campaign to destroy Hamas will resume once the deal is carried out.

Hamas to date has demanded that any further hostage releases be accompanied by an Israeli commitment to end the war — a condition Israel has rejected as “delusional.”

The TV report quotes a senior Israeli source saying the Israeli negotiating team, led by Mossad chief David Barnea, has the “mandate” it needs from the government to advance in the talks.

The source close to the talks also says the government needs to make a decision on sending the IDF into Rafah, since the protracted indecision over whether to start a major ground operation in the final Hamas stronghold is hurting the negotiation efforts.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

______________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22