DAVID HOROVITZ
Hamas's Gaza Strip leader Yahya Sinwar in a tunnel in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, October 10, 2023 (IDF Spokesman)
We would appear to be in the midst of a particularly fateful period for Israel, the hostages in Gaza, and the war to destroy Hamas.
As I write, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding a series of meetings here with the Israeli leadership, having publicly declared that Israel has made an “extraordinarily generous” offer to Hamas for a hostage-truce deal, and urged Hamas to quickly accept it.
The terms of that offer have not been publicly confirmed, but are widely reported to provide, in a first phase, for the release of 33 living hostages who meet a so-called “humanitarian” designation — women, children, men over 50, the wounded and sick. This would be carried out in return for the release by Israel of something in the region of 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners, many of them serving life terms for murder, in the course of a 40-day halt in the fighting, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, and a partial IDF troop withdrawal. During that first phase, negotiations would also begin on a process for achieving sustainable calm in Gaza.
A second phase, if reached, would see the release of the rest of the living hostages, in return for many more Palestinian security prisoners, the finalization of an agreement for sustained calm in Gaza, and the full withdrawal of the IDF. In a third and final phase, there would be an exchange of bodies, and the start of implementation of a multi-year rehabilitation plan for Gaza, with Hamas barred from rebuilding its military infrastructure.
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