Israeli Prisoners in Gaza: Negotiating Release with Hamas and Netanyahu’s Refusal

2024-01-22 17:17:47

Israel announced at the beginning of its war on the Gaza Strip that the first goal of the war was the release of Israeli prisoners held by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and in return Hamas set its conditions for completing the exchange deal.

Hamas’ conditions for releasing the prisoners were to stop the war, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, the release of all prisoners held by Israel, and not to harm Hamas.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered these conditions tantamount to surrender to Hamas, and declared his categorical rejection of them, saying: “I categorically reject the surrender conditions set by the monsters of Hamas.”

These statements by Netanyahu came before the war cabinet was convened to discuss the issue of exchanging prisoners and detainees, according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, which said that the head of the Mossad would provide a briefing during the session regarding the progress made regarding formulating a possible new exchange deal with Hamas.

However, reports indicate that not all members of the War Council agree with Netanyahu that recovering the hostages is possible through war, most notably Israeli War Council member Gadi Eisenkot, who said that the prisoners are very dispersed underground; As the probability of their release is very low.

He added: “It is impossible in the near future to return the hostages alive without an agreement and I do not know if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I know that we need to show leadership in our ability to tell the truth to people.”

For his part, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also does not approve of Netanyahu’s policy of recovering prisoners through war and says: “If you want to eliminate Hamas, you must remove the hostages first. I said in the Knesset and to the Prime Minister personally that there is full support for any agreement, no matter how painful it is, and if The price was stopping the fighting, so be it.”

Netanyahu’s stubbornness

The episode (1/22/2024) of the “Shabakat” program monitored some social media comments and tweets that held Netanyahu responsible for prolonging the war, stubbornness, and unrealism, in addition to tweets that indicated that he would submit to Hamas’ conditions regarding the prisoner issue in the end.

Activist Wolf held Netanyahu responsible for prolonging the war and tweeted: “All indications say that the end of the war is near, and had it not been for Netanyahu’s exaggerated stubbornness, the war would have ended recently.” He added: “But his stubbornness, arrogance, and refusal to declare Israel’s defeat and its failure to achieve any central goal of War objectives: Postponing the ceasefire.”

As for “Abu Ayman,” he stressed that time is a decisive factor and that Netanyahu will yield in the end. He said: “The days are between us. Netanyahu will implement Hamas’ conditions no matter how long the war lasts.”

For his part, activist Qazi pointed out that Netanyahu wants to prolong the war because he is wanted for investigation and trial, and added: “He does not care regarding returning the prisoners to their families alive because the continuation of the war means (there is) a very high possibility that they will be killed by the bombing.”

For his part, activist Abu Shehab accused the Israeli army of lying and asked: Where are the Israeli prisoners whom the Israeli army was able to release in the battles? He added: “You did not succeed in releasing any prisoner, but rather you killed prisoners who were with Hamas.”

To put pressure on the Netanyahu government, some family members of Israeli prisoners detained in Gaza stormed today. The Finance Committee met in the Israeli Knesset, and they raised banners bearing the names of their detained relatives and demanding their immediate release, and others holding the government and the ruling coalition responsible for their safety. They chanted slogans demanding their immediate release and heading towards concluding an exchange deal that would guarantee their safe return.

While awaiting the return of the prisoners from Gaza, their families said that Netanyahu informed them that there was no appropriate and relevant deal to return the kidnapped people.

1705944291
#Tweeters #Netanyahu #submit #Hamas #conditions #complete #prisoner #deal #Programs

Leave a Replay