Israel and Hamas are close to reaching a hostage deal in which most of the women and children held hostage in Gaza would be released, a senior Israeli official told the Washington Post on Monday evening.
Although Israel wants the release of all 100 women and children abducted to Gaza, Hamas is only willing to release 70. In exchange, Israel will release Palestinian females and minors held in Israeli prisons and agree to a ceasefire of five days which would allow for the safe transfer of the hostages and help ease the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
According to the report, the deal could announced within days if the final details are resolved. One detail still being negotiated on Monday is how Israel will verify that its hostages are being released as it exchanges the Palestinian prisoners.
The negotiations for the deal are being carried out indirectly through Qatar, where Hamas’s political leaders are based. Egypt is also playing a helpful role by supporting the negotiations and pressuring Hamas leaders.
The Israeli official told the Post that the Israeli government is committed to seeing the release of all hostages, including about 90 male civilians and a small number of soldiers. “We want as many as possible, as quickly as possible, and no one stays behind,” he stressed.
According to the official, Hamas holds the majority of the hostages, including a small number of dead bodies. The official added that although some hostages are being held by other groups, Hamas has the power to negotiate for almost all of them. He clarified that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group is holding about 35 hostages and a terror group known as the “shabiha” and other smaller groups hold about 35 more.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
How many times must Israel learn the same lesson? No deals. The hostages’ lives are not worth more than those of the many times more who will die because of this deal. It’s an explicit halacha that one may not ransom a captive for more than the kidnappers would be able to get for them anyway at the nearest slave market. That much one may and should pay, because doing so doesn’t create an incentive to kidnap more Jews; people who kidnap others to sell them are going to do so anyway, and there’s nothing we can do about it, but at least they won’t specifically go after Jews. But nowadays there is no slave market, so hostages are useless to a kidnapper unless he knows we will pay ransom; therefore it is forbidden to pay any price, however low. How much more so releasing terrorists, which is a very high price, that will be paid in Jewish blood. Israel must treat the hostages as if they are already dead, and let the world know that the only thing you get when you kidnap a Jew is death.
And the other 170 we should forget about????
ה ירחם
I agree with Millhouse and Yaapchik. And by the way this is a terrible deal sorry. ceasefire five days plus having to give over PRISONERS who committed crimes for INNOCENT HOSTAGES. That is a whole different equation. Not congruent…at all. Also, the minute they are not holding women and children, it will be a whole different situation, so they are purposely trying to cut this deal so that the world will have no “rachmanus” and the men would be left behind. I hope the Israeli govt is not foolish enough to go for this. Hashem yaazor. We need the geulah. I hope HKBH gives the Israeli govt the koach and moach to withstand this test which of course is not poshut in any direction.