GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 248

Tell Us It Ain’t So

Ceasefire Without All Hostages Released?

According to a report found in The Times Of Israel Israel will end the war without getting all the hostages released:

Channel 12 news publishes extensive details of what it says is Israel’s May 27 proposed hostage and ceasefire deal to Hamas, without citing sources or saying how it obtained it.

Contrary to what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted, the reported document apparently does not include the elimination of Hamas as a governing force in Gaza, and does include an Israeli commitment to end the war even before all hostages are released.

If true, this news will reverberate through all of the government, especially the right wing of it. The article goes on to give details of the proposal, details that we may have already known:

The report says the four-page document, titled “General Principles for an agreement between the Israeli side and the Palestinian side in Gaza on the exchange of hostages and prisoners and restoring a sustainable calm,” includes 18 clauses and three phases.

In the first phase, according to the reported document, Hamas would free all the women — including soldiers — in addition to men over the age of 50 and ill and wounded civilians — 33 hostages in total. In return, Israel would release 30 Palestinian security prisoners per hostage, or 50 per female soldier, with the inmates belonging to the same group (women, children, elderly, etc.) as the hostages they were being exchanged for.

The document says this about the prisoners to be released:

Notably, the release of Palestinian inmates, including terror convicts, would be “subject to lists to be provided by Hamas based on precedence of their imprisonment.”

Out of the 50 Palestinian prisoners freed for each of the five female soldiers believed to be held alive in the Strip, 30 would be inmates serving life sentences, and 20 would be serving other sentences “limited up to 15 years remaining time in prison.”

The identities of those estimated 250 prisoners would also be based on lists provided by Hamas, except an “agreed upon number of prisoners (at least 100) who will be discussed in the second phase 2.” At least 50 of the freed inmates serving life sentences would be released to Gaza or abroad, not to the West Bank.

The terrorist organization agrees to release Israeli female hostages like this:

In the first phase, Hamas would let go of three female civilian hostages on day 1 and another four on day 7, followed by three Israeli hostages every seven days, beginning with women — whether civilians or soldiers — and with all the living hostages being released before any bodies.

More Details

Then the hostages will be released this way and then how many terrorists who were rearrested after 2011 will be handled:

During the sixth week of the first phase — after the release of Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, civilians who separately entered the Strip of their own accord close to a decade ago — Israel would free 47 Palestinians who were freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal and have since been rearrested, the reported proposal says.

In addition, Israel during the sixth week would also release all Palestinian women and children under 19 “who are not militants” who have been detained in Gaza since October 7.

The next detail is one I think is a big agreement if true:

All prisoners will not be rearrested for the same offenses, and will not be required to sign any document.

According to the same Times report, negotiations will decide when the fighting will stop before even getting into phase 2:

Regarding the sensitive issue of how the transition from the first phase to the second will work — on which Netanyahu’s version of the deal has differed from the one publicly presented by US President Joe Biden — the document says that no later than day 16, indirect negotiations will begin over details of the exchange that will take place in the second phase, when soldiers and remaining men will be released.

“This should be concluded and agreed upon before the end of week 5 of this [first] phase,” it says, adding that “all procedures in this phase including the temporary cessation of military operations by both sides… will continue in phase 2 as long as the negotiations… are ongoing. The guarantors of this agreement shall make every effort to ensure that those indirect negotiations continue until both sides are able to reach agreement on the conditions for implementing phase 2 of this agreement.”

And a permanent ceasefire will be agreed upon before the last of the hostages are released:

In phase 2, which will last 42 days, the sides will “announce restoration of a sustainable calm (cessation of military hostilities permanently)” which will begin before that phase’s hostage-prisoner exchange. Also, during this part, Israeli forces will completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu Calls The Report Lies

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded to the report denying Hamas will survive it as we see in another article from The Times Of Israel:

In response to the Channel 12 report laying out what it says is the proposal offered by Israel to Hamas last month, the Prime Minister’s Office says the “document that was presented is incomplete and misleads the public.”

“The claim that Israel agreed to end the war before achieving all its goals is a total lie,” says the PMO.

A “sustainable calm” isn’t seen by Israel the same way as the article:

According to Channel 12, Israel offered “a sustainable calm,” which the proposal defined as a “cessation of military operations and hostilities permanently.”

The full document, argues Netanyahu’s office, would show that “Israel will not end the war until all its conditions are met — that is, fighting until Hamas is eliminated, returning all of our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza never again represents a threat to Israel.”

What could clear this all up would be for the full proposal to be seen publicly, something the PM doesn’t seem to want to do:

Netanyahu has refused to reveal the full proposal to the security cabinet, drawing accusations from his far-right allies that he is purposefully concealing information from them. They have said any end to the war without Hamas being vanquished will cause them to leave the government.

I hate to say it, but by not letting everyone see the proposal, these accusations by those on the right who support him and now have added leverage now that Benny Gantz left are unnecessary. And with so many wanting Hamas to accept it, their criticism rings truer. Is Netanyahu hiding something? Is he willing to say one thing publicly and another behind closed doors? In this case silence is far from golden. Pray that Netanyahu clears the air and puts these accusation to rest. But if they are true, the right wingers can push and threaten him with collapsing his coalition altogether. And that would be exactly what Hamas and Iran would love. This is hardly the peace of Jerusalem we pray for and is a valid prayer request for it to happen and with Hamas being eliminated as planned.