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Hostage families negotiate deal with Qatari leader, Israeli cabinet to decide

The Qatari deal will allow Hamas leaders to survive with exile status and is contingent on an IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A proposed hostage deal presented by Qatar will be decided on by Israel’s war cabinet.

Families of the hostages remaining in Gaza spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani about an agreement that would lead to the release of the more than 100 hostages remaining in Gaza.

Haim Rubinstein, spokesman for the Families’ Headquarters said, “The reports about a new deal that will be presented to the cabinet this evening give a little hope to the families who are anxious about the fate of their loved ones.”

He continued, “They have been languishing in the Hamas tunnels for almost 100 days and nights without food, water, and life-saving medical treatment. Every day that passes, the condition of the abductees deteriorates.”

Negotiations with Qatar have secured a deal with will allow the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for allowing Hamas leaders to survive with exile status.

The hostage deal also involves a gradual release of abductees contingent on the IDF’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Rubenstein stated that the War Cabinet’s first priority should be the release of the hostages.

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“The War Cabinet must not concern itself with anything other than the return of the abductees.”

He added, “We demand that they approve any deal that will lead to their immediate release alive.”

The IDF’s stated goal from the beginning of the war has been to eliminate Hamas and target their leaders, but recent news that Hamas chiefs are using Israeli hostages as human shields impede this goal as well as efforts to release hostages.

Former IDF general and head of IDF Military Intelligence Directorate Amos Yadlin told Kan radio that the “butcher of Khan Younis” is “surrounded by hostages in the tunnel network in Gaza.”

Although Yaldin didn’t provide details, the statement has been supported by multiple Israeli military sources.

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, DC posted on X that he had been hearing similar reports “from informed people for weeks.”

Schanzer continued, ”What I heard specifically is that he had surrounded himself with Israeli hostages. He is using them as human shields.”