Egypt Proposes Full Deal: Hamas to Disarm, Turkey as Guarantor
Amid Israel’s decision to capture Gaza City, Cairo presents Hamas with a plan to release all hostages in exchange for prisoners, alongside an Israeli withdrawal and full demilitarization of the group under Arab-American oversight. Netanyahu: “No more partial deals.”
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Moving from negotiations for a partial deal to talks on releasing all 50 hostages? Against the backdrop of the Israeli cabinet’s decision to capture Gaza City, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya arrived in Cairo, where mediators presented him with a new initiative that includes the Israeli demand for the terror organization to disarm. Netanyahu had earlier hinted that Israel no longer seeks a partial deal, partly due to the U.S. position.
According to Sky News Arabia, Egyptian officials presented a new initiative “in an attempt to dismantle Netanyahu’s excuses for reoccupying Gaza City.”
A later report on the same network stated that the new proposal includes a comprehensive deal to release all Israeli hostages, both living and deceased, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Under the proposal, Hamas would have to agree to a new IDF withdrawal map from the Gaza Strip “under Arab-American supervision, until a permanent solution is reached on the issue of disarmament and governance in Gaza.”
Following an Israeli demand that Hamas has so far rejected, the proposal says Hamas would freeze all military activity and disarm, with the mediators, as well as Turkey, serving as guarantors. All this would take place while negotiations continue for a permanent ceasefire agreement.
In a press conference the day before yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu laid the groundwork for the possibility that there would be no more partial hostage deals, declaring that the resolution would come through “sophisticated methods that will surprise Hamas.”
He also revealed that he had instructed the IDF to shorten the timetable for capturing Gaza City and to act “faster and sooner” in order to end the war.
Members of the Israeli negotiating team claimed that the gaps between Israel and Hamas were not large and could be bridged. Netanyahu, however, said that Hamas had set “terms of surrender”, the release of Nukhba terrorists, international guarantees against resuming the fighting, and withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, conditions that, according to him, no government could accept. He stated there was no chance for a deal; according to some negotiators and mediators, however, a deal was possible, and Israel was quick to refuse