Seven hostages to be released in first week of ceasefire – report

Meanwhile the PA is reportedly insisting on ruling Gaza without Hamas on the “day after.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Three hostages are to be released on the first day an Israel-Hamas deal goes into effect, the BBC reported Tuesday, citing a Palestinian official with knowledge of the negotiations.

Immediately afterwards, the IDF will begin withdrawing from populated areas of Gaza, said the official.

Another four people will be freed the following week, in exchange for which residents of northern Gaza will be allowed to start returning to their homes.

A massive number of Palestinian security prisoners will be freed from Israeli jails as Hamas releases a total of 34 hostages in the first stage.

Out of 1,000 prisoners, fully 190 will be hardened terrorists who have already served over 15 years of their sentences, said the official.

Hamas has allegedly agreed to the IDF staying for some six weeks in an 800-meter-wide zone in the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel considers the terrorists’ weapons pipeline.

According to Ynet, the first hostages to be released will be women and children, then older men and some younger ones.

There are some younger men who have chronic illnesses and can be considered “humanitarian” cases, as the others are.

While all of these hostages are supposedly alive, the report said that Israel is prepared to receive bodies as well.

This would leave alive in captivity at least 22 Israelis, all young men, among them four soldiers, two pairs of brothers of seven in total forcibly taken from their kibbutz homes, and 11 who were kidnapped from the Nova festival.

Several foreign workers, including eight Thais and one from Nepal, are also still considered to be alive, although Hamas has never released any evidence of this.

Negotiations for their return, as well as for the 36 hostages already known to be dead, is to start on Day 16 of the first stage.

In parallel to the hostage negotiations, inter-Arab discussions are being held about the “day after” Israel pulls out from the Gaza Strip, if such a final stage of an agreement can be reached.

An Egyptian source who is involved in talks being held in Egypt with the Palestinian Authority (PA) told Kan News that Cairo had tried to convince the PA to establish a joint committee with Hamas to oversee civilian affairs.

However, the PA is insisting on running Gaza alone, without any Hamas participation, the source said, because Ramallah does not trust the Islamists, who are trying to destabilize the Authority in Judea and Samaria “and introduce an Iranian agenda there,” the report said.

Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar has reported that Egypt and Qatar have given guarantees that Hamas will not rule the Gaza Strip again.

Jerusalem has so far held firm against the PA being in charge of Gaza, considering the nationalist Palestinians just as pro-terror as their Islamic brothers in Gaza.