Proposal, which Netanyahu rejects as ‘ridiculous,’ would include release of female soldiers in first stage, leading up to permanent deal that would see IDF withdraw from Gaza
Hamas has presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the US that includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences, according to a proposal seen by Reuters.
Hamas said the initial release of Israelis would include women, children, elderly, and ill hostages in exchange for the release of 700-1000 Palestinian prisoners, according to the proposal. The release of Israeli “female recruits” is included.
Ahead of a meeting Friday of the war cabinet to deliberate on the possibility of finalizing a hostage deal following Hamas’s offer, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night accused the terror group of continuing to dig its heels in with “ridiculous demands.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum appealed to the war cabinet to agree to a deal.
“For the first time, we can envision embracing them again, please grant us this right,” the families of the hostages said in a statement.
They called on the prime minister and war cabinet not to postpone the deal and to save all 134 “daughters and sons who were cruelly taken, solely for being Israelis,” said the families. “For the first time, we can envision embracing them again. Please grant us this right.”
Egypt and Qatar have been trying to narrow the differences between Israel and Hamas over what a ceasefire should look like as a deepening humanitarian crisis has one-quarter of the population in the battered Gaza Strip facing famine.
In February, Hamas received a draft proposal from Gaza truce talks in Paris that included a 40-day pause in all military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages at a ratio of 10 to one — a similar ratio to the new ceasefire proposal.
Talks appeared to break down late last week as Hamas demanded that Israel end the war and withdraw all troops in Gaza, rather than the six-week pause and partial withdrawal Jerusalem had already agreed to. Israel agreed to hold talks based on the Paris proposal but has stressed that any break in the fighting would be temporary, committing to its long-held goal of not ending the war until it destroys Hamas.
Hopes had risen in recent days, though, with a senior Arab diplomat telling the Times of Israel earlier this week that talks were advancing after Qatar put heavy pressure on Hamas to soften its demands, warning that its leaders residing in Doha could be deported if they didn’t adapt their approach in the negotiations.
According to the latest proposal, Hamas said it would agree on a date for a permanent ceasefire after the initial exchange of hostages and prisoners, and that a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would be agreed upon after the first stage.
The group said all detainees from both sides would be released in the second stage of the plan.
Late on Thursday, Hamas said it presented to mediators a comprehensive vision of a truce based on stopping what it called Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, providing relief and aid, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, and withdrawing Israeli forces.
A senior Israeli official told the Walla news site that Hamas’s demands were still too high, but “there is something to work with.”
Representatives of about 20 families were invited for a personal meeting with Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, Thursday night, after not meeting with the prime minister for more than six weeks. The families told the prime minister that the meetings with him and members of the war cabinet were “vital” and asked that they take place regularly and frequently, after weeks of asking for meetings and noting their far more frequent meetings with US administration officials.
The families emphasized that it is the prime minister’s “responsibility and commitment to secure the release of all the hostages, both the living and the murdered,” they said in a statement, and told him their sense of feeling invisible in the process of a hostage deal.
Domestic pressure for a deal has ramped up in recent weeks from both the supporters of hostages’ families and anti-government activists. On Thursday, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in separate rallies for a hostage deal and against Netanyahu’s government in Tel Aviv, with some protesters briefly blocking a main highway.
War erupted on October 7 when Hamas sent thousands of terrorists from Gaza into southern Israel, where they carried out an unprecedented rampage, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 253 others.
It is believed that around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, along with the bodies of 32 people, after 105 of the hostages were freed during a week-long truce in November.
International mediators are desperate to broker a pause in the fighting after some six months of war that have left the Strip in ruins, with over 1 million Gazans displaced, hunger rampant, and vital humanitarian relief slow to reach civilians for a variety of reasons. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says over 31,000 people have been killed, though it does not differentiate between civilians and fighters, and the numbers cannot be independently verified.
The UN has warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza are on the brink of famine and global pressure has been growing on Israel to allow more access for aid.
Lazar Berman and Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-seeking-exchange-of-women-children-elderly-hostages-for-up-to-1000-prisoners/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter.