Israel – Israeli officials reported, on Sunday evening, that Tel Aviv had agreed to release 700 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Palestinian faction movement’s release of 40 of the Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip, according to Hebrew media.
The “Walla” news website (exclusive) quoted unnamed Israeli officials as saying that Tel Aviv agreed to the United States’ proposal to release 700 Palestinian prisoners, including 100 “people with life sentences,” in exchange for the faction movement’s release of 40 of the Israeli prisoners in Gaza.
Israel is also prepared to be flexible regarding the return of the displaced from the southern Gaza Strip to its north, which is one of the main points of contention in the indirect negotiations with the faction movement, according to Israeli officials.
The website stated that Tel Aviv’s flexibility regarding the number of Palestinian prisoners proposed to be released came after a proposal presented by CIA Director Bill Burns with the Qatari and Egyptian mediators during the Doha negotiations a few days ago.
Israeli officials said that Tel Aviv is awaiting the factional movement’s response to the American mediation proposal, and estimates indicate that the movement will respond within the next two days.
Led by the head of the Mossad Foreign Intelligence Service, David Barnea, the Israeli delegation participated in indirect negotiations with the faction movement in Doha on Friday, with Qatari-Egyptian mediation and American participation. Tel Aviv later announced that its technical team would remain in the Qatari capital after the departure of its senior negotiators.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (official) also quoted an unnamed Israeli official, yesterday, Sunday, that the Israeli negotiating delegation offered to the mediators in Qatar the release of 7 prisoners with “political weight,” for every female soldier that the faction movement releases, without Tel Aviv objecting. On any proposed Palestinian name.
Israel holds at least 9,100 Palestinians in its prisons, and it is estimated that there are about 134 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, but the faction movement announced the death of 70 of them in random Israeli raids.
It is not known how many Israeli female soldiers are captive in Gaza, and as of 19:50 GMT, no official statement has been issued by Israel or the mediators regarding a new proposal, nor has the movement of the factions been tracked.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that the War Council canceled at the last minute, on Sunday evening, a briefing session that was scheduled to discuss the latest developments in the prisoner exchange deal negotiations. Because of “waiting for the factional movement’s response to the proposals.”
Earlier, a Palestinian source told Anadolu that Israel responded to a proposal by the faction movement regarding a ceasefire, and that the movement considers the response “negative” and aims to disrupt negotiations and prevent reaching any agreement.
The source explained that Israel refuses to stop the ongoing war on Gaza since October 7, 2023 and withdraw from the Strip, and wants to impose conditions on the limited return of the displaced from the south of the Gaza Strip to its north.
The war on Gaza left tens of thousands of civilian casualties, 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.”
Anatolia
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2024-04-01 16:23:44