According to the source, in the first stage, which would last from 45 to 60 days, Israeli forces would withdraw from the city centers in the Gaza Strip and partially remain in the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors in southern and central Gaza, respectively. All women and children would be allowed to return to northern Gaza and in a later and gradual stage, men would be allowed to return to the north of the Strip under an agreed-upon monitoring mechanism.
During the first stage, the terrorist group would hand over 30 Israeli hostages, both alive and dead, in exchange for an undetermined number of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons, including dozens serving life sentences.
The agreement would also include the Palestinian Authority eventually taking control of the Rafah bordering cross under arrangements supervised by Egypt.
Foggy Bottom has “cautious optimism” about discussions about a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, “though very much tempered by realism,” Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said during the department’s press briefing on Tuesday.
Washington continues “to engage with the mediators” and “the mediators continue to engage with Hamas and with Israel,” according to Miller.
John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, stated in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that Washington believes that “we are getting closer to a Gaza ceasefire deal.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied reports on Tuesday that he was heading to Egypt for ceasefire negotiations.
“Contrary to the wave of rumors, Prime Minister Netanyahu is not in Cairo,” said Prime Minister’s Office Spokesperson Omer Dostri.
Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, unnamed sources briefed on the matter told Reuters that Netanyahu was heading to Cairo, adding that an agreement with Hamas was expected to be signed in the coming days.
On Monday, Netanyahu met with Adam Boehler, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs, according to his office.
Boehler is visiting Israel this week amid ongoing negotiations to secure the release of the remaining hostages. He also discreetly met with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
Trump said on Monday that he is working to secure the release of the hostages in Gaza.
“We are trying to help very strongly in getting the hostages back,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
During his administration’s final White House Chanukah celebration, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden also pledged to continue efforts to release the captives.
“I’ve gotten over 100 hostages out. I will not stop until I get every single one of them home,” he said on Monday to cheers from the hundreds in the audience.
Defense Minister Israel Katz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that “we are the closest to a hostage deal since the last one.”
During last year’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which lasted from Nov. 24 to Nov. 30, 105 captives—81 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals—were released. In total, 155 hostages have either been released or rescued, according to the latest Israeli government figures.
“We have not been as close as we are to a hostage deal in the past. Certain things which were not debatable in previous discussions with Hamas are now debatable,” Knesset member Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism) told JNS on Tuesday.
“Hamas no longer gets supplies, ammunition and money from Iran through Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor, it ended. Hezbollah is no longer fighting with them, the Assad regime fell and with it the Iranian access. Hamas is in great difficulty, isolated, and it makes them more flexible in the negotiations,” he continued.
“As for Trump’s return to the White House, Hamas knows that he is not their friend. Trump will not keep feeding Hamas and giving them humanitarian aid to control while this group of savages holds our hostages. He won’t stand for it the way Biden did,” Tal added.
As for the outcome of current negotiations, Tal said it is very hard to predict what will happen.
“We had negotiations with Hamas many times over the past 14 months and it ended with strong disappointment,” he said.
“Hamas does not care about the suffering of its own people. They don’t care about people dying or the destruction of the Gaza strip. They care about surviving and destroying Israel, that’s their goal, this is why they initiated Oct. 7,” he continued.
“Only once they feel they have no other choice will Hamas agree to a deal, and it’s hard to predict whether now they feel they are in that stage,” Tal added.
MK Ariel Kallner (Likud) told JNS during ongoing negotiations, the less they’re discussed, the better the chances they will succeed.
“We are committed to bringing our hostages that were hijacked by the most brutal enemy of humanity home, and making sure that this will never happen again. Hamas should be eliminated, and until then we should do everything we can to bring them home through a deal or any other way that is available,” Kallner told JNS on Tuesday.
“We see that all our achievements in the war have a good impact on bringing about a hostage deal. We know that there was no deal not because of Israel but because of Hamas. All U.S. high officials, including President Biden and Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken, have said so,” he continued.
“But things have changed. There is no war in the north. Both Iran and Hezbollah have abandoned Hamas. Trump being reelected and the clear statements he has made have also had a very important impact. Therefore, we are in better chances than we have been in the past,” he concluded.
Authors: Joshua Marks, Amelie Botbol
Republished with permission from JNS.org
