Hamas likely to accept Israel offer on Shalit within days
Israel insisting at least 100 prisoners be exiled; Hamas expected to demand that the number be reduced.
By Jack Khoury, Yuval Azoulay and Avi Issacharoff Tags: Gilad Shalit Hamas Israel newsHamas announced on Wednesday that the German mediator involved in the talks to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit had delivered Israel's offer.
Hamas' deputy political leader, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said that top officials in the group were studying Israel's offer and would respond to the German mediators within days.
Media outlets in the Gaza Strip said that a Hamas delegation would head from Gaza to Cairo on Thursday, and then to Damascus, where they would meet with members of Hamas' political wing there to discuss their response to what Israel has put on the table.
At the center of Israel's demands is an insistence that between 100 and 130 of the Palestinian prisoners who are to be released in exchange for Shalit - individuals convicted of direct responsibility for the deaths of Israelis - will be expelled to the Gaza Strip or abroad and barred from returning to the West Bank. However, Hamas is insisting that all released prisoners be allowed to return to their homes.
Hamas is expected to respond favorably to Israel's offer, but will demand that the number of expelled prisoners be reduced. Negotiations are then expected to continue over the names and numbers of those to be expelled.
The London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat on Wednesday quoted Hamas sources as saying Israel was to blame for the delay in the prisoner swap because it was conditioning the release of the Palestinian prisoners on the expulsion of no less than 100 of them, and was refusing to release certain "major" prisoners.
Israel reportedly has not agreed to the release of Marwan Barghouti, Ahmed Sa'adat, Ibrahim Hamed, Abdallah Barghouti, Abbas Sayed, Jamal Abu-Hija and Hassan Salameh.
It was not ruled out that rather than sending a delegation to Damascus, Hamas members in Gaza would report their position to Damascus by means of an emissary, and then wait a number of days for a response from their Damascus bureau. Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said Wednesday that as chief of staff he was "obliged to bring [Shalit] back home safely."
Gaza Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Wednesday that after delivering Israel's response, the German mediator left Gaza and returned to Germany for Christmas. He said the mediator would be returning to the Strip in a few days.
The deputy head of Hamas' political wing, Musa Abu-Marzuk, who spoke with Al-Hayat, refused to discuss the matter of the deportation of released prisoners, noting that Hamas did not accept this position. He said the matter was still under negotiation, and that there had been "unprecedented progress, but still not enough so that the deal would get underway, because of disagreements with the Israeli security establishment."
Al-Hayat also reported that, according to Western diplomatic sources, Israel had agreed to release 443 out of 450 prisoners, on condition that 100 would be expelled to the Gaza Strip or other countries.
The Shalit family and members of the group working for Gilad Shalit's release have been keeping a low profile as long as Hamas has not responded to Israel's latest offer. "We have no one to yell at as long as the work is going on," Shimson Leibman, the head of the group working for Shalit's release, told Haaretz.
"Bringing back Gilad Shalit is a national mission, and both covert and overt actions are being carried out to do so," Ashkenazi told a gathering of youth groups in Ashdod on Wednesday.
"As the chief of staff, I am responsible for every soldier. I feel obliged to bring him back home; naturally it's better to keep a discussion of the details to closed forums, but I hope that the mission will be completed," Ashkenazi told them.
Ashkenazi's reported support for the deal with Hamas for Shalit's release recently led to a clash with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political adviser Uzi Arad, who opposes the swap.
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A Palestinian woman walking past a cartoon of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza. |
| Photo by: (Reuters) |
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Assuming you are correct and most Palestinians are in jail for terrorist activity. How about the rest of the prisoners who attacked the IDF? I never read any reference to them in Israel's media besides "terrorist". Have you?
They the Pal's are to stupid to react against Hamass. Instead no matter what happens it is Israel's fault. If Hamass murdered all of Gaza's citizens at once. It would be the consensus by the Pal?s and Arabs alike that it is Israel's fault.
Of course there is no guarantee while people like U do their best to demonize Jews and Israel. However, military might provides a chance.
Everyone's opinion is valid and yet everyone can be wrong at the same time. Perhaps Mr. Klein sees more clearly than some of his detractors actually think. In war, forget about total morality---there is none. You have got to take the fight to the enemy with sometimes harsh and bruatal force. Even if it means the death of one your soldiers. Your state has a sworn enemy---FACE IT---AND DECIDE IF YOU'LL BE LIONS OR LAMBS.
In the future, any suicide bombing should be immediately countered with the destruction of the suicide bomber's home. Easy to do since the Palestinians are always very proud when their suicide bombers butcher innocent Israeli civilians, and they immediately release video tapes of the "hero". If this message doesn't get through to the Pals and they carry out a second suicide bombing, then the IDF will flatten the entire block of houses around the bomber's home. If this still doesn't work and the Palestinians insist on continuing their policy of suicide bombings, then the entire neighborhood should be flattened. My guess is that not Hamas, but the palestinian people will get the hint and there will be an uprising against the Palestinian policies of attacking Israeli civilians. If you object to Israel dropping bombs on Palestinian civilians, then let's hear you first demand that the Palestinians stop attacking Israeli civilians (272 rockets and mortars from Gaza so far this year).
The exchange rate is not what an Israeli is worth, but what the Hamas knows what the Israelis believe they are worth.
they accepted a long time ago but have been trying to do a little better.they also want to bask in the glory that negotiations with israel gives them.
Within days......within weeks ..We have been reading these words for years..... Assumption is the mother of all balls ups.
Look at the record of the number of suicide bombers that attacked Israeli military targets as opposed to hospitals buses discos hotels etc Ditto for shootings Likewise the Arab "revolt" Likewise the Arab pogroms. There was the lynching of 2 captured reservists,maybe you can call that a military operation?
Israel tends to use the word terrorist rather liberally. Israel does not distinguish between those who intentionally target civilian(which I agree are definitely terrorist) and those who target the occupying military force of Israel. The latter type is not terrorist, otherwise all IDF soldiers are terrorist, including Shalit. Why is a Palestinian killing an Israeli soldier a terrorist, but an IDF soldier killing a Palestinian fighter not? Many Palestinians are in jail for attacking the IDF. They are not terrorist.
I see. So never mind the cruel, dehumanizing blockade on Gaza, the brutality of which is lost on the most moral people in the world. Let's assume that Hamas is voted out and the notoriously corrupt Fatah is voted in for the next elections. Then what? Israel will have its little "plucked chicken" in Mahmoud Abbas, as dear Arial Sharon put it. All that means is continued occupation and oppression, only you would not have Hamas to blame any longer.
Hamas will answer this for us.
I'm curious how Mark Klein got his pipeline into Hamas thinking. Why would he think Hamas would agree to Israel completely ignoring the rules of civilized nations. The government of Israel claims to be the most pure and moral of all. As to squeezing Gaza's economy, maybe he could describe how Israel could squeeze it further. Lots of their land in now questionable for agriculture as possibly poisoned. Nobody knows if its poisoned and nobody can test. Gaza can't rebuild. There is no straw for the mud bricks. The water supply is questionable since the system was bombed last December and January. Gaza survives by smuggling, not Israeli largess. And the IDF would have tried to rescue Shalit if they either knew where he was or didn't think the raid would kill him and a lot of other Israeli kids. Between Summer Rains and Cast Lead, thousands have already died in Gaza in retribution for the capture of the POW Gilad Shalit. Yet Mark Klein knows they'll capitulate this time. How?
I thought they tried that last winter, or was that to stop rockets? so hard to keep track of Israeli attacks on Gaza, they all have such B.S reasons.. gosh, end the blockade, end the occupation and good thing will happen!, brainless? wait, who is the terrorist here?
... for Shalit soon...
Hamas has the best of all possible political worlds by showing it can play Israel like a string puppet by pulling Jewish heart strings. This pathetic farce will go on indefinitely unless the IDF moves to recover Shalit by force and squeezes Gaza economically until conditions become intolerable for Hamas voters.
Great, the hamas is setting the exchange rate: one Israeli is worth more than 400 palestiniens. What a consent! And no shame on how little they value themself .
that Hamas go for 1500 prisoners in exchange for Shalit. That approximates the usual death toll ratio for Jews versus Palestinians. I'd also suggest that Hamas hold out. Hamas has very little to lose, and Israeli popular opinion supports getting Shalit back at all costs.
It will be good to move beyond this issue. One would hope that it will be a lesson to Israel that their military might offers them no guarantees. Not only can they lose, but their own actions can deepen the loss.