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Hamas agrees to release hostages without permanent ceasefire as pre-condition

The deal begins with the release of 33 hostages during the first phase, which will last 42 days and correspond to a pause in fighting.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Hamas has dropped its demand for the implementation of an immediate and permanent ceasefire before the first phase of the hostage deal.

This development led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a delegation to Doha, headed by Mossad Director David Barnea.

A US official announced, “We’ve had a breakthrough on what has been a critical impasse in the deal” and said the issue that needs to be worked out is the “implementation sequencing.”

The disagreement between Hamas and Israel on the declaration of a ceasefire was the critical impasse that prevented any hostage deal from materializing since the truce in November that saw the release of 105 hostages.

Although the Israeli and Hamas sides aren’t entirely in line–Hamas still demands a ceasefire before the completion of the first phase–what has changed is that the terror group has yielded on its prior demand that no hostages would be released without a total commitment to a permanent ceasefire.

The deal begins with the release of 33 hostages during the first phase, which will last 42 days and correspond to a pause in fighting.

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Talks would begin on a permanent ceasefire by the 16th day and would be concluded before phase 2 could begin.

Hamas has refused since May to agree to release more than 18 hostages in the first phase, and there is no evidence of the terror group budging from that demand even during this round of negotiations.

The US official added, “This does not mean this deal is going to be closed in a matter of days. There’s significant work to be done.”

They concluded, “What we got back Hamas was a pretty significant adjustment to what had been their position. And think that is encouraging,” the official said. “It’s time to close this out because the lives of the hostages are on the line.”

Netanyahu and Biden spoke on the phone for 30 minutes to discuss the details of the deal and negotiations.

During their conversation, Netanyahu reiterated that he would not end the war unless all of Israel’s goals had been achieved.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and former General and National Unity party politician Gadi Eisenkot expressed that this is the closest Israel has come to a hostage deal yet.

The three-phase hostage release deal was approved by US President Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu and involves three phases during which 120 hostages would be released in return for Palestinian prisoners.