Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted an Israeli official as saying that Tel Aviv is ready to release important Palestinian prisoners, even those who were convicted of murder, while senior American intelligence and defense officials began a diplomatic round aimed at reviving talks on a new prisoner exchange deal.
The newspaper said that Israel decided to go towards concluding a new deal with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) after the Israeli army killed 3 detainees in the Shujaiya neighborhood in the Gaza Strip last Friday, noting that Israel is aware of the high price that Hamas demands in exchange for the release of the male prisoners, and it is Ready to release high-level prisoners compared to the previous deal.
The newspaper also quoted American officials as saying that US President Joe Biden believes that the time has come to conclude an exchange deal, considering the return of detainees a higher goal, as he put it.
The newspaper believes that the Israeli decision to renew negotiations to release the prisoners entails risks, including the potential impact on the Israeli army’s ground operation in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant said that military action is the only thing that can put pressure on Hamas, while the movement says there will be no negotiations as long as the fighting continues. However, it now appears that steps are being taken to move forward with a potential deal.
The newspaper says that Israel still adheres to three principles: First, any negotiations will take place with Hamas in conjunction with the continuation of the operation in the Gaza Strip, with temporary truces without the release of prisoners. Secondly, resuming negotiations from the point where they stopped in the previous round, and thirdly, Israel insists that any new deal must include specific categories.
Israel wants to release elderly prisoners, along with women and those suffering from medical conditions, and also insists on reaching an agreement to release only living prisoners.
American efforts
On Monday, senior American intelligence and defense officials began new diplomatic efforts aimed at reviving talks to release prisoners still being held by Hamas in Gaza and end the Israeli war there.
CIA Director William Burns traveled to Warsaw on Monday to meet with David Barnea, director of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, and the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, according to American and Egyptian officials. An American official said that the meetings are an attempt to resume discussions about the prisoners.
Also yesterday, Monday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Q. Brown, met with Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli War Council.
The discussions that took place in the Qatari capital, Doha, last month, with the participation of Burns, the Mossad director, and senior Qatari officials, were part of negotiations that led to the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a week-long truce in the Gaza Strip in late last November.
During the truce, Hamas released more than 100 Israeli detainees, women and children, in addition to foreigners it was holding in Gaza, in exchange for Israel releasing 240 Palestinian women and minors.
Israel said there were still 129 detainees in Gaza, a number that included the bodies of 21 soldiers and civilians, who Israel concluded were no longer alive.
Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said on Monday that Hamas informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that it would not resume prisoner talks with Israel unless it stopped its war in Gaza.
Hamdan said in a press conference in Beirut, “We are against any partial measures, and it is the occupation that is hindering the process.”
On the same level, families of prisoners in Gaza staged a sit-in and closed a street near the entrance to the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv for 241 seconds, with a number of those captured at the beginning of the war, as part of their ongoing movement to demand that the War Council work to reach an exchange and prisoner return deal. The families moved their sit-in to the main entrance of the Ministry of Defense and announced that they would remain at the site until a new direction for an exchange deal was announced.
The families of Israeli prisoners continue their sit-in in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv to demand the completion of an exchange deal with their families. The Committee for the Families of Israeli Prisoners announced that the families of soldiers killed during the war in Gaza joined the protests, and the association’s participation in its demands to liberate their sons. Our correspondent Najwan Samri monitored the atmosphere in front of the Ministry of Defense.
The Israeli Channel 12 said that the person responsible for the prisoner file in the Israeli government requested, during a meeting with the families, to stop the protests demanding work on their return because the government is doing everything to achieve that.
Source : Israeli press + Agencies + Wall Street Journal
