2023-12-12 00:26:26
What are the interests of Israel and Hamas in a new prisoner exchange deal?
As the pace of confrontations escalates in the Gaza Strip, and the violence of the Israeli attacks on the center and south of the Strip increases, an American press report stated that the leader of the Hamas movement in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, told the Egyptian negotiators, during the talks related to the prisoner exchange, that “the war will not end quickly.” .
The American Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Sinwar “stopped contacts regarding the exchange of prisoners with Israel several times in order to put pressure on the Hebrew state,” according to what the newspaper quoted “Egyptian mediators” that it did not name.
Archives of Yahya Al-Sinwar, head of the Hamas movement in Gaza, at a meeting in Bahariya Hall, April 30, 2022 (AP)
The report also indicated that Sinwar “told the Egyptian mediators that the war will not end soon as previous rounds of confrontation in the Gaza Strip ended,” and the newspaper added that the prominent Hamas leader, who the newspaper notes is “currently leading the armed confrontations once morest Israel in the Palestinian Strip.” He said that “the fighting may continue for weeks,” indicating that he “wants to put pressure on Israel as much as he can regarding the remaining Israeli detainees held by the movement.”
It is noteworthy that, following the breaking of the first humanitarian truce that was reached on November 24, with Egyptian, Qatari, and American mediation, Israel and Hamas exchanged accusations of not extending the truce. Israel accused Hamas of refusing to release all the women detained by it, while a statement by the Palestinian resistance movement held Israel responsible for not responding to the alternatives it proposed.
The two conflicting parties expressed strict positions regarding returning to negotiations on a new truce and exchange of prisoners. Israel stipulated that all those detained by Hamas be released and that the movement’s leaders surrender themselves to the Israeli army, while Hamas announced that it would not enter into any new negotiations “unless the (Israeli) enemy stops His aggression was completely ended and his forces withdrew from the entire Gaza Strip.”
War government
Dr. Ayman Al-Raqab, professor of political science at Al-Quds University, believes that Israel is the “obstructing party” to any efforts to resume serious negotiations on a new truce that includes a prisoner exchange agreement with the Palestinian resistance, indicating that the Israeli war government wants to continue negotiating under the old conditions, despite the changes. Categories of prisoners who will be negotiated, that is, following the end of the stage of women and children and entering into negotiations to release men and female soldiers.
Palestinian prisoner Marah Bakir following her release in the prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel (Archyde.com)
Al-Raqab explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that despite the complexity of the field scene and the intensification of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, there are interests for both parties in the return of the truce and the exchange of prisoners, pointing out that the resistance will benefit from stopping the Israeli killing machine in the Gaza Strip, and pressure to set new conditions for negotiation. While the Israelis will benefit by releasing more prisoners following their repeated failure to reach them by force, despite the entry of advanced British spy devices that were among the factors that helped the occupation army reach the location of one of the captured soldiers. Last week, he was killed during the process of freeing him by force, and he was being held captive. It belongs to one of the factions and not to Hamas.
Israel withdrew from high-level security meetings hosted by the Qatari capital, Doha, in which the heads of the intelligence agencies of Egypt, the United States, and Israel participated, in addition to Qatari officials, to discuss ways to extend the truce.
David Barnea, head of the Mossad (Israeli intelligence), asked his team in Doha to return to Israel “in the wake of the dead end in the negotiations.” Hours later, Israel resumed its unprecedented bombing of the Gaza Strip.
A Hamas member hands over Israeli hostages to Red Cross members in a deal between Hamas and Israel and a temporary truce (Archyde.com)
Dr.. Sobhi Asila, head of the Palestinian and Israeli Studies Program at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, expressed his belief that Israel actually needs a deal soon to exchange prisoners, pointing out that its forces are suffering significant losses in the current confrontations with resistance factions in Gaza, which increases the human cost of the president’s attempts. Israeli Minister Benjamin Netanyahu achieved field gains that justify his political extremism, and his forces failed to reach any of the prisoners, which will intensify the pressure of the families of detainees in Gaza to restore the political track in order to release their relatives.
Al-Raqab and Asila agreed in their expectation that the coming period will witness “serious negotiations” to launch a new truce, and the Palestinian academic believed that this might happen following the twentieth of this month, estimating that the negotiations may take a week before reaching a result. There is an American deadline announced by some circles close to the White House that ends by the end of this year, in addition to the end of the work of British spy planes in less than two weeks, which will be an indication of the imminent acceptance of the Israelis to negotiate a new prisoner deal.
US Ambassador and Alternate Representative of the United States for Special Political Affairs to the United Nations Robert A. Wood raises his hand during a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza at the UN headquarters in New York City (AFP)
Meanwhile, Asila said that the international community’s patience with the Israeli operations in Gaza is “decreasing rapidly,” adding that the United States is facing mounting criticism within America and in the international community, and this was evident following it used the “veto” alone in the Security Council, which made it appear as a lone party. It obstructs reaching a truce in Gaza, and therefore approving a truce and exchanging prisoners may be an “appropriate way out” for all parties.
After the truce was broken, a week following it was approved, Egypt and Qatar expressed their regret over this, but they confirmed, in separate statements, their continued efforts to mediate between Israel and the Hamas movement in order to reach a new truce, amid the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
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