Hamas has reportedly responded “positively” to a revised Egyptian proposal that Israel has yet to officially receive.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Egypt told Hamas recently that it will expel the terrorists it took in if the terrorist organization does not agree to a new hostage deal that renews the broken ceasefire, a senior Israeli official said, according to various Israeli media.
Cairo agreed to host several dozen of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners that Israel released last month in exchange for 33 hostages during the recent ceasefire.
Israel had refused to allow them back to their homes in either the Gaza Strip or Palestinian Authority territory in Judea and Samaria.
They were supposed to stay only a short time in Egypt before going on to other countries, but no one has agreed to take them yet. Many are senior terrorists with blood on their hands.
It was unclear where Egypt would send them if the government wanted to realize its threat.
The official credited heavy American pressure for the hardening of the Egyptian stance. He said that that U.S. special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff had told Egyptian intelligence head Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad that the White House was dissatisfied with Cairo’s inability to pressure Hamas to free more hostages in an extension of the first phase of the original ceasefire plan.
Witkoff had presented a “bridge proposal” some two weeks ago, offering that in exchange for more hostages being released, hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners would be freed, military quiet would be guaranteed for 50 days, and humanitarian aid deliveries that Israel froze as soon as the deal collapsed would resume.
Israel said it agreed to the plan, with the expectation that 11 of the living hostages would be released on the first day and the rest of the living, assumed to be between 11-13 in number, freed on the last day.
According to an AP report Monday citing an unnamed Egyptian official, Cairo proposed a similar plan last week, but it demanded that Hamas release only five or six Israeli hostages, including Idan Alexander, a lone soldier who is the only living hostage with American citizenship.
The Qatari-owned, London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported Monday that another alleged part of the Egyptian proposal was that Hamas deliver to Israel a list of all the hostages, both the living and the dead, and details on the condition of all the wounded, including photographs to prove their contentions.
Hamas has never provided a comprehensive list of the hostages, despite Jerusalem’s repeated demands.
Other reported elements of the plan include Israel beginning to withdraw completely from Gaza by the second week, both from the areas that the IDF has taken over the last week of its resumed military operations and from the security zones it had established in accordance with the original ceasefire agreement.
The report noted that a Hamas official said that the Gazan group had “responded positively” to the proposal, without providing any further details.
Israeli officials said they have not yet seen the proposal’s terms.