Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will return to fighting in the Gaza Strip as soon as “the hostage restitution phase is exhausted,” stressing that “this issue has been resolved,” in his apparent response to reports of US-American relations Qataris. -Egyptian efforts for a broad agreement that includes… A definitive ceasefire and a comprehensive prisoner exchange agreement.
Netanyahu came out in a video in which he said he had set himself three goals from the beginning of the war: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all kidnapped Israelis in Gaza and ensuring that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel, and “These three objectives still exist.
Netanyahu added: “During the last week we achieved a very important result, namely the return of dozens of abducted people. A week ago it seemed surreal, but we did it. But in recent days I hear a question: once the current phase of returning our captives is over, will Israel return to the fight? So, my answer is definitely yes. We cannot go back to fighting until the end. This is my policy and this is the policy that the whole cabinet supports, and the whole government supports it, the soldiers support it and the people support it, and this is what we will do in particular.”
This position of Netanyahu coincides with the position of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who said: “Very soon we will continue ground operations throughout Gaza until the enemy is defeated.”
Netanyahu and Gallant’s statements come at a time when active discussions are taking place between Qatar, the United States, Egypt, Israel and Hamas to extend the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which entered its sixth day on Wednesday.
The Washington Post newspaper reported that during the talks held in Qatar on the extension of the truce in Gaza and the possibility of concluding a new exchange agreement, between the head of the Israeli Mossad, David Barnea, and the head of the CIA, William Burns, met With Qatari mediators, five categories of captive hostages were agreed upon who could be released in future agreements. The five categories are: men who have passed the age of service in the army, women soldiers, reserve men, men in regular service and the bodies of Israelis who were killed even before their capture or died during captivity.
According to the report, the number of prisoners belonging to these categories exceeds 100 people. Israel and Hamas have confirmed that they are interested in exchange agreements.
The representative of the Hamas movement in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said there was “the possibility of extending the ceasefire for further days on two levels”. “The humanitarian level, which involves releasing as many prisoners as possible, and the political level regarding how to end the war and the siege of the Gaza Strip.” An Israeli political official responded: “It depends on the behavior of Hamas.”
But there is a big difference in how the two sides believe things can move forward.
Hamas wants to whitewash Israeli prisons on the basis of “all for all” and stop the war, which is the only price currently offered for detained Israeli soldiers, but in Israel they do not want to end the war by giving Hamas a major victory like whitewashing the prisons, and they do not intend to end the war now. . A senior Israeli official said: “There is no proposal for an all-inclusive agreement for all.” He added: “Hamas wants an end to the war, and that won’t happen.”
In light of this discrepancy, the only possible solution in the coming days is for Hamas to release more women and children in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners of the same category on the basis of “1 Israeli for every 3 Palestinians… and one day of truce for every 10 kidnapped ”.
A source close to the Hamas movement said that the movement is ready to extend the ceasefire in Gaza for another four days and continue to free Israeli prisoners in exchange for the release of Palestinian security prisoners.
Israel believes there are up to 83 women and 10 children detained by Palestinian factions.
The Israeli government on Monday approved the names of 50 more female prisoners who could be considered for release if Hamas frees 20 more Israeli hostages in the coming days.
In the first four days of the truce, Hamas released a total of 30 Israeli children and 20 Israeli women, then released 10 abductees on Tuesday and 10 more on Wednesday.
By Wednesday evening, the “Al-Qassam Brigades” would have handed over 10 Israelis to the Red Cross, in exchange for Israel’s release of 15 children and 15 women, including 7 women from the 1948 regions.
Before the Israelis were released, Hamas released two more hostages who had Russian citizenship and were outside the exchange agreement. Hamas said that, in response to the Russian president’s efforts, it released two detainees with Russian citizenship and handed them over to the Red Cross as a prelude to handing them over to representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
While the truce lasted until the sixth day, and Gazans hoped it would, the violations continued and medical sources announced the recovery of the bodies of two young men killed by occupation shells near the public security zone north of Gaza City.
Occupation forces fired live ammunition at citizens of Gaza City as they tried to return to their destroyed homes in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in southwest Gaza, and also fired artillery shells at citizens in western areas of the city of Gaza, particularly in Gaza. the neighborhoods of Al-Nasr, Sheikh Radwan and Sheikh Ajlin.
Occupation ships also attacked citizens’ homes in areas west of Khan Yunis, Al-Shati camp, Sheikh Radwan and other areas adjacent to and opposite the coast of the Gaza Strip, with no casualties reported. .
In a later development, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced that three of their Israeli prisoners had been killed in an earlier Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip. Al-Qassam reported, in a brief military report, that “three detainees were killed following an earlier Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.” He explained that the dead were: Sherry Silverman Bibas, Kfir Bibas and Ariel Bibas.
The Israeli military responded that it was “looking into (Hamas’) claims that Shiri Bibas and her two children, 10-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel, are no longer alive.”