Top Israeli officials head to Egypt for hostage deal talks

Despite calling Hamas’ last proposal “delusional,” the government engaged with the document and is suggesting a compromise.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Top Israeli officials are heading to Egypt for hostage deal talks with a compromise in hand despite the government having called Hamas’ last proposal “delusional,” Channel 11 reported Tuesday.

Mossad chief David Barnea and Shabak head Ronen Bar will have a meeting with CIA Director William Burns, Egyptian intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani, who is the chief negotiator with Hamas, having the terror organization’s ear after years of funding its Gazan regime.

According to the initial report on Monday’s evening news, the discussion is taking place after the Americans put pressure on Israel, as well as on the Egyptians and Qataris, “to be a little more flexible in their positions.”  As a result, said reporter Suleiman Maswadeh, there has been “a very limited accommodation in the Israeli stance that will be presented to the mediators.”

At a press conference Monday with Jordanian King Abdullah II, who is currently making a round of Western capitals urging a ceasefire, U.S. President Joe Biden said that he had spoken with “[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and Qatar’s leaders to promote” a hostage deal “that will lead to at least six weeks of truce, in which we can try to build a longer break.”

This is considerably different than Hamas’ demand for a 4.5 month halt to the fighting which is meant to lead to a permanent IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which Israel rejected out of hand.  Israel also rejected the demand to cherry-pick 500 hardened terrorists for release from Israeli prisons in partial exchange for hostages.

Another “important issue” that specifically Bar and Kamel will discuss, Maswadeh said, is “Israel’s planned entrance into Rafah and the operation regarding the Philadelphi Corridor. Israel wants to ensure that everything is coordinated with Egypt, as per the Americans’ request and Israel’s [own] desire.”

Hamas’ four last intact battalions are in the southern-most town in Gaza, and the IDF has vowed to destroy them so as to completely denude the terror organization of its military capabilities. The corridor runs along the 8.7-mile border between Egypt and Gaza, through and under which Hamas has smuggled vast amounts of weapons over the years.  Israel is insisting that it needs to control the corridor to stop the dangerous phenomenon from ever repeating itself.

These are both very touchy subjects for Cairo, especially with the corridor being on its side of the border, and it has said that any damage to its sovereignty would seriously damage its relations with Israel and even abrogate their peace treaty.