2024-03-23 19:30:00
3/23/2024-|Last update: 3/23/2024 10:46 PM (Mecca time)
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Sources revealed to Al Jazeera that the Israeli response presented to the mediators regarding the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip included a refusal to stop the war, the withdrawal of its forces from the Strip, and the return of the displaced without conditions, noting that the response maintained the framework of the agreement in 3 stages.
The response provided detailed points regarding the exchange of prisoners and conditions for stopping operations. Regarding the return of the displaced, the Israeli response offered a restricted return of two thousand displaced persons per day to the northern Gaza Strip, two weeks after the start of implementation of the agreement.
According to the sources, Israel stipulated the release in the first stage of 40 living Israeli detainees from all categories. It also rejected the request of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to release 30 life-detainees for every female soldier, and offered only 5 that it would specify.
The sources added to Al Jazeera that Israel demanded, in exchange for the release of the prisoners who were re-arrested from the Gilad Shalit deal, that the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Hamas movement – release two soldiers it held captive before the current war, namely Hadar Goldin and Shaul Aaron.
The Israeli response also included its right to deport out of Palestine the life-sentenced prisoners who will be released during the deal.
Mossad chief David Barnea arrived in Doha on Friday to participate in indirect negotiations with Hamas regarding the prisoner exchange deal (Reuters)
Big gaps
For its part, the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted a senior official – which it did not name – as saying that there are major gaps in Qatar’s negotiations regarding the release of prisoners in Gaza, and that the United States offered a compromise solution that Tel Aviv agreed to, but it is waiting for Hamas to respond to it.
According to the official, the United States proposal includes Tel Aviv’s commitment not to assassinate senior Hamas leaders if they are exiled outside the Gaza Strip, in exchange for an agreement that includes demilitarizing the Strip and returning all prisoners detained in Gaza.
The Israeli official confirmed that the proposal also includes the withdrawal of Israeli army forces from the Gaza Strip.
The official said that this proposal is being promoted by the United States as part of the phase that follows the deal to release 40 detainees in Gaza in exchange for a 6-week ceasefire.
These developments come at a time when thousands of Israelis are demonstrating in Tel Aviv to demand the conclusion of a prisoner exchange deal, while protesters closed the street opposite the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in the center of the city.
Yesterday, Friday, an Israeli delegation headed by Mossad chief David Barnea left for the Qatari capital, Doha, to participate in indirect negotiations with Hamas regarding the prisoner exchange deal, with American, Qatari, and Egyptian mediation.
Israel holds at least 9,100 Palestinians in its prisons, according to official Palestinian sources, while Israeli media talks about between 240 and 253 Israeli prisoners, including 3 who were taken out and 105 who were released by Hamas during an exchange deal last November, and the movement talks about 70 others were killed as a result of the Israeli bombing.
A short while ago, Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced the death of Israeli prisoner Yevgen Bukhataf (34 years old) as a result of a lack of medicine and food.
The devastating Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, left tens of thousands of civilian victims, most of them children and women, and a famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly, according to Palestinian and UN data, which led to Israel appearing for the first time before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing genocide. .
A truce was previously held between Hamas and Israel for a week from November 24 to December 1, 2023, during which a ceasefire took place, prisoners were exchanged, and limited humanitarian aid was brought into the Gaza Strip.
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