The response offered a detailed Israeli view of the prisoner exchange and the conditions required for the exchange to take place.
The Israeli response to the Gaza ceasefire proposal is yet to be officially released. However, sources close to Al-Jazeera communicated the main points of the Israeli position.
According to the Qatari news network, Israel refuses to end the war, withdraw its forces from the Strip and return hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to their homes in northern and other parts of Gaza.
The only element of the original ceasefire proposal Israel agreed to is to maintain the three phases of implementation.
The response offered a detailed Israeli view of the prisoner exchange and the conditions required for the exchange to take place.
Regarding the displaced Gazans, Israel offered to only allow 2,000 Gazans to return to the north per day, and only two weeks after the start of the implementation of the ceasefire.
‘Our Conditions’ – Full Text of Hamas Response to Ceasefire Proposal
Prisoners
According to the Al-Jazeera sources, Israel wants 40 living Israeli detainees, from all categories, to be released.
It rejected Hamas’ request that 30 Palestinian political prisoners with life sentences be released for each female soldier released in Gaza.
Instead, Israel said it is willing to release only five Palestinian detainees, for each prisoner – the identity of whom to be determined only by Israel.
Israel also responded to Hamas’ request to release all prisoners who were re-arrested following a previous prisoner exchange in 2011.
According to the report, Israel said that it will only release them if the Palestinian Resistance releases two Israeli soldiers it had captured before the current war.
‘Immediate Ceasefire’ with Conditions – US Submits Draft Resolution to UN Security Council
Israel also wants to reserve the right to deport any prisoner it releases outside the country. This condition applies to those with life sentences.
Citing an unnamed Israeli official, the Israeli broadcaster KAN said that there are large gaps between Israel and Hamas in the ongoing negotiations in Doha.
The official also said that Israel will wait for Hamas’ response.
On Friday, an Israeli delegation headed by Mossad chief David Barnea left for the Qatari capital, Doha, to participate in indirect negotiations with Hamas on the prisoner exchange deal, mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 32,142 Palestinians have been killed, and 74,412 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
‘War against Children’ – UNICEF Spokesman Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’
(PC, AJA)
