Sana’a – Saba:
Despite the positive atmosphere that has surrounded the negotiations and the optimistic language used to describe an imminent breakthrough in a prisoner exchange agreement—language unprecedented since the onset of the war—the cautious tone from Hamas officials and mediators, including the United States, remains noticeable. This stems from fears of Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies derailing the progress and reverting to square one.
Both the current Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration have exerted pressure on Netanyahu’s government to resolve this issue, which has become a major headache for the United States. However, the U.S. continues its staunch support for the Israeli regime in this violent conflict. Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance has offered significant concessions, showing an unparalleled level of flexibility to alleviate the ongoing suffering of Palestinians, now stretching over 14 months.
Arab, international, and Israeli sources confirm that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hindered multiple stages in ceasefire talks and prisoner exchange negotiations with Gaza’s resistance, driven by his personal and political interests aligned with the far-right.
Israeli negotiation team officials have criticized Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Katz for their handling of the prisoner exchange and ceasefire in Gaza. According to a report by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the officials accused Katz of harming the negotiations through his statements. They said:
"Hearing the defense minister’s comments about the Philadelphi corridor risks blowing up the negotiations. It’s clear we are at a decisive moment requiring flexibility and goodwill to finalize the list of detainees held in Gaza."
In direct comments to Netanyahu and Katz, the Israeli negotiators said:
"Do not announce that you will extend the war in Gaza or take measures for full military control over it at such a critical stage. These statements have caused severe damage—it is simply shocking."
Although the negotiators did not rule out the possibility of a deal, they noted that the remarks by Katz, following Netanyahu’s interview with The Wall Street Journal, have not contributed positively to reaching an agreement.
In response to the criticisms, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement describing the accusations as "false echoes of Hamas propaganda propagated by unknown sources with political agendas within the negotiation team." The statement added:
"Netanyahu is committed to bringing all the captives back home and achieving the war's objectives, including eliminating Hamas and ensuring Gaza ceases to pose a threat to Israel."
Netanyahu's office called on negotiators to "focus on the sacred mission of returning the kidnappers and stop playing for the Hamas terrorist organization." According to his description.
The Zionist negotiating team includes senior officials in the intelligence services "Mossad" and the General Security "Shin Bet" and the army of the Zionist enemy.
Egyptian sources denied Israeli claims that Hamas had withdrawn from prior understandings regarding the ceasefire negotiations and prisoner exchange. They told Al-Araby Television:
"Hamas has shown significant responsiveness and has waived some of its conditions during the ceasefire talks, while Israel backtracked on previously agreed points."
Defense Minister Katz recently visited the Israeli-occupied Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt, stating that:
"Israel will maintain security control over Gaza, establishing buffer zones and security sites."
Meanwhile, Netanyahu told The Wall Street Journal:
"The war will continue until Hamas is completely eliminated. Israel will not accept its existence on its borders."
The channel "i24 News" quoted the father of a Zionist prisoner, as saying that the Trump team knows that Netanyahu is obstructing the completion of the Gaza deal. He stressed that he is interested in a partial deal so that he can continue the war in Gaza.
He noted that Netanyahu's government wanted no talk of the next day, no cessation of hostilities, but military rule for Gaza.
The frequency of mutual accusations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the "State Camp" party, Benny Gantz, escalated after the latter accused the former of "saboteurizing" the prisoner exchange negotiations with Hamas.
On Sunday, Gantz accused Netanyahu, in a televised speech published by the Zionist newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, of "sabotaging" the deal negotiations. He criticized Netanyahu's talk to foreign media about the deal being finalized with Hamas.
"We are in sensitive days, life and death are truly controlled by the tongue," Gantz said. "As Netanyahu himself said just a week ago, the less we talk, the better, while the negotiators are working, Netanyahu is sabotaging the negotiations again."
Gantz also addressed Netanyahu in a new statement. "Netanyahu, don't be a coward, I was afraid to dismantle the coalition, and only thanks to Gantz's insistence were we able to bring back more than 100 kidnappers (detainees)," he said.
Gantz's statement added: "Netanyahu, you have previously spoiled the opportunity to reach a deal to free the kidnapped for fear of coalition collapse, we will not allow you to do that again while there is a real deal on the table."
According to informed sources to the media of the Zionist enemy, the Zionist entity seeks a two-pronged deal; a "humanitarian" deal (which includes women, the wounded, and the elderly), followed by another deal that leads to the end of the war and the withdrawal of the Zionist army from the Gaza Strip.
Prisoner exchange negotiations, which are being mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, have stalled more than once, due to Netanyahu's insistence on "continuing control over the Philadelphia border axis between Gaza and Egypt, and the Rafah crossing in Gaza, and preventing the return of Palestinian faction fighters to northern Gaza by searching returnees through the Netzarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip.
For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas insists on a complete withdrawal of the Zionist enemy from the Gaza Strip and a complete cessation of the war, to accept any agreement.
The Zionist enemy is holding in its prisons more than 11,000 Palestinians, while it is estimated that there are 100 Zionist prisoners in the Gaza Strip, while Hamas announced that dozens of prisoners were killed in random Zionist raids.
The chances of reaching a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas over the war in the Gaza Strip for more than a year have been diminished due to obstacles regarding the names and numbers of Palestinian prisoners and Zionist hostages expected to be released during the stages of the deal.
Although all parties have confirmed that there is progress in the negotiations run by the mediators, this progress is very small and has not achieved any breakthrough that can be built upon to announce the start of the first phase of the truce and the exchange of prisoners and detainees.
Observers and experts believe that "the progress witnessed by the truce negotiations between the two parties to the fighting in Gaza is very slow, and cannot lead to an agreement for calm between Hamas and the Zionist entity soon." It said the parties needed more time to reach an agreement.
Observers and experts confirm that the Zionist entity does not stop setting new conditions in each round of negotiations, especially regarding the file of hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in its prisons. They stressed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to reduce the cost of releasing the hostages.
They point out that "Netanyahu is not interested in reaching a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, and is taking advantage of the movement's weak political position to impose his dictates and conditions on the international community and the entire region."
In recent hours, the pace of news and information circulating about the imminent conclusion of a prisoner exchange agreement and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has accelerated, amid an atmosphere described by all parties, Hamas, the government of the Zionist enemy, and mediators, as positive, while the Palestinians and the Zionists themselves wish for an agreement that ends this suffering that has been going on since the seventh of October 2023.
Despite this positive atmosphere, which some consider being the best since the beginning of the war, and driven by a package of incentives and fears, relying on it to reach a final agreement is an unresolved matter, in light of the presence of a figure such as Benjamin Netanyahu at the head of the government-controlled by the extreme right, who used to obstruct such moves by announcing the withdrawal card from the government coalition in the face of the crisis prime minister.
Hamas said through its leader that the meetings hosted by Doha and Cairo recently were constructive and that the atmosphere is more positive than it was before. It pointed out that the movement's participation in that tour was characterized by flexibility and dealing with a broader view to end the war.
While the course of negotiations reaches advanced levels, the Zionist enemy army continues its war of extermination, displacement, and starvation against tens of thousands of Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip, for the 75th consecutive day, as it besieged the residents of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia since the fifth of last October, which led to the rise of four thousand martyrs and the injury of 12 thousand others, in addition to the arrest of more than 1750 Palestinians.
E.M
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