Normalization with Saudi Arabia – in exchange for not defeating Hamas?

A new deal expected to be discussed by Israel’s Cabinet includes the promise of normalization with Saudi Arabia in exchange for Israel agreeing not to dismantle the Hamas terror group, Israel Hayom reported.

According to the report, Israel, the US, Qatar, and Egypt estimate that Hamas’ response to the new plan will arrive within a day or two. The plan does not include, at this stage, a number of terrorists who will be released in exchange for the hostages. If Hamas accepts the principle ideas, negotiations will begin on their implementation.

Israel Hayom noted that representatives of the four countries – Mossad chief David Barnea, CIA chief William Burns, Qatari PM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel reached an agreement and even signed a document detailing the main points of the deal.

The goal behind such a deal would be to clarify to Hamas that this is the only possible deal under discussion, the report added.

The deal would be executed in “humanitarian steps”: The civilian women, the elderly, and the ailing held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad will be the first hostages to return to Israel, followed by the female soldiers. In the next stage, civilian young men kidnapped from the Nova festival will be returned, followed by male soldiers. In the last stage, Hamas will return the bodies of all hostages murdered.

In exchange for the hostages’ release, Israel will cease its attacks and release an as yet undecided number of convicted terrorists.

The steps are expected to be carried out over the course of approximately two months, allowing Hamas to claim that Israel has ended the war, as the terror group demanded it must.

It is expected that such a long break will essentially lead to the end of the war, Israel Hayom noted.

Parallel to the “small deal” regarding the prisoner swaps, the US will work to achieve, during the negotiations and subsequent ceasefire, a historic regional agreement in which Saudi Arabia will recognize Israel and create diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. This recognition would be the “compensation” Israel would receive for ending the war before achieving the complete dismantling of the Hamas terror group and its rule of Gaza.

Prior to Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, Israel and Saudi Arabia were close to signing a normalization agreement. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia clarified that it is still interested in normalization with Israel, following the end of the war against Hamas.

Days later, deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel poured cold water on the idea that a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia is near, saying there is still work to be done.

Shortly after the start of the war in Gaza, sources told Reuters that Saudi Arabia is putting the US-backed plans to normalize ties with Israel on ice.