For first time in months, security cabinet summoned to meet Thursday

The high-level security cabinet will convene Thursday for the first time in months, media reports said, speculating the discussion could focus on alleged Israeli strikes in Syria this week or about negotiations with the Hamas terror group for a prisoner exchange deal.

Ministers received a summons for a meeting at 5 p.m. at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Hebrew-language media reported late Wednesday. They were not notified what the subject of the meeting would be.

One likely subject could be Israel’s efforts to oust Iran from Syria.

Alleged Israeli airstrikes in eastern Syria on Monday night reportedly killed at least 14 Iranian fighters and allied militiamen.

The attacks were the sixth and seventh strikes attributed to Israel against Iran-linked forces in Syria in the past two weeks. There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely confirms individual cross-border raids.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said all of the fatalities in the bombardment of militia bases in the Deir Ezzor region were Iranian or Iraqi nationals. It said the death toll was expected to further rise, as a number of people injured in the strike were in critical condition.

Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said it was “likely” that Israel had mounted the operation.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett last week appeared to confirm that Israel was responsible for recent attacks against pro-Iranian forces in Syria, saying that the military was working to drive Tehran out of the country.

Jerusalem says Iran’s presence in Syria, where it is fighting in support of President Bashar Assad, is a threat, as Tehran seeks to establish a permanent foothold along Israel’s northern borders. Israel has also vowed to take military action to prevent Iran from providing the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group with advanced weaponry, specifically precision-guided missiles.

Another possible reason for the security cabinet being convened was reported progress in talks with Hamas over a prisoner swap deal.

The possibility of a deal to return two Israeli captives — Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed — and the bodies of two IDF soldiers being held in the Gaza Strip — Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin — has appeared to pick up momentum recently.

The government’s chief negotiator for the release of Israelis held by the terror group updated families last week regarding the prisoner swap talks, while a senior Hamas official reacted Sunday to reported progress, saying the terror group was willing to “sacrifice everything” to win the release of its members from Israeli prisons.

The meeting last week between negotiator Yaron Blum and the families of Shaul and Goldin, both killed in action during the 2014 Gaza war, came after Netanyahu earlier convened the ministerial committee responsible for returning Israeli captives to discuss efforts to reach a prisoner exchange with Hamas, Channel 13 reported.

While Hamas has in recent weeks expressed interest in reaching a deal, the terror group, which is the de facto ruler in the Strip and openly seeks Israel’s destruction, has said that in order for such a deal to take place, Israel must first release all teenage, female and elderly prisoners in addition to those who were rearrested after the 2011 Shalit deal, when more than 1,000 terror convicts were freed in exchange for a single IDF soldier.

Ismail Haniyeh, who leads the Gaza-based group, has said that he was optimistic there was a chance to reach a prisoner swap deal with Israel, and that the group was ready for indirect negotiations.

The issue of the captives was reportedly delaying Israel’s okay for new investment money to be funneled into blockaded Gaza, and Hamas was growing desperate to lift part of the blockade amid the global coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn.

Some Israeli defense bodies are said to believe a prisoner swap would bring quiet to the often tense border for the immediate future.

After weeks of quiet, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into Israel early Wednesday that landed in an open area, causing no injuries or damage, the IDF said. The IDF said that in response tanks shelled three Hamas military positions in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel and Hamas have in the past failed to advance in the talks, in part because each has demanded a different timetable. Hamas has demanded two rounds of prisoner releases — the first in exchange for information on the captives, the second in exchange for the actual delivery to Israel of the captives and the soldiers’ bodies. Israel has refused, insisting that any deal must take place in a single exchange.

The coalition deal inked last month between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz also opens a possible political window for a deal, as Gantz’s Blue and White party would likely support an exchange even if some of Netanyahu’s right-wing allies do not.