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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian Support for Hamas Remains High
2025-05-29
[Spectator] Some Palestinians reject terrorism and Hamas, but a new poll shows they appear to be outnumbered.

A recent poll conducted by the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) from May 1-4, 2025, highlights the reality of Paleostinian public opinion amid the ongoing war in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 Strip, now 19 months in from its start with the Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
-led attack on October 7, 2023.

The survey, covering 1,270 respondents (830 in the West Bank, 440 in Gaza) with a margin of error of ±3.5 percent, reveals strong support for Hamas, the October 7 attack, and "armed struggle." Most Paleostinians oppose Hamas’s disarmament, do not believe Hamas committed atrocities on Oct. 7, and believe the decision to attack Israel that day was "correct."

This poll challenges the dubious claim that all Paleostinian civilians are innocent. Parents who teach their children it is okay to kill Jews are complicit with the terrorist holding a gun. And indeed, many of these children did grow up to become terrorists. This was proven on October 7, 2023, when a terrorist called his parents, bragging he had killed Jews and knowing he would receive his family’s support.

And this support has not changed drastically. Paleostinian civilian support for Hamas’s October 7 attack still stands at a disturbing 50 percent and it was even higher in the past — 54 percent in September 2024 and 71 percent in March 2024. In Gaza, 38 percent of "innocent" Paleostinians still view the attack as "correct," compared to 59 percent in the West Bank. Notably, 87 percent of respondents deny Hamas committed atrocities against Israeli civilians, despite video evidence.

According to the poll, most Gazooks (51 percent) blame Israel for their suffering, followed by the U.S. (28 percent), while only 12 percent primarily blame Hamas. Although Hamas launched a major war against Israel, Hamas’s popularity still stands at 32 percent (it was 36 percent seven months ago) and even remains higher than Fatah’s (21 percent), the more "moderate" of the two parties.

In hypothetical legislative elections, Hamas would garner 43 percent of the vote among participants, while Fatah holds steady at 28 percent. In Gaza, Hamas’s support is stronger (49 percent) than in the West Bank (38 percent). Marwan Barghouti, a terrorist in Israeli prison, remains the most popular leader, securing 50 percent of voters in a presidential race against Hamas’s Khaled Mashal (35 percent) and Paleostinian Chairman the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
 (11 percent).

The poll reveals complex sentiments in Gaza. Nearly half (48 percent) of Gazooks support recent anti-Hamas demonstrations demanding the group relinquish control, though 54 percent believe these protests are driven by "external hands." Opposition to disarming Hamas is strong, with 85 percent in the West Bank and 64 percent in Gaza rejecting it as a condition to end the war. Similarly, 65 percent oppose expelling Hamas’s military leaders.

The question is, why? Innocent people are not supposed to support terrorists. Why do the Paleostinians?

Interestingly, 43 percent of Gazooks express willingness to emigrate postwar, and 49 percent would apply to Israel for emigration assistance, despite Egypt and Jordan rejecting U.S.-backed displacement proposals.

Satisfaction with Hamas’s performance still stands at an unbelievable 57 percent (43 percent in Gaza, 67 percent in the West Bank), outpacing the PA (23 percent), Fatah (24 percent), and Abbas (15 percent). Among regional actors, although Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s continue to indiscriminately attack Israel’s civilians — Arab and Jew alike — by firing ballistic missiles, the Paleostinians highly approve of their attacks (74 percent), followed by Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
 (45 percent) and Hezbollah (43 percent).

Additionally, the United States, which has worked around the clock to get Paleostinians humanitarian aid, received a disturbingly low approval rating of just 3 percent. Shockingly, Paleostinians gave China (26 percent) and Russia (21 percent) a much higher approval rating.

Paleostinians living in the West Bank (88 percent) say they would rather remain rather than flee to Jordan. What this means is that even with fears of Israeli counter-terrorism operations, Paleostinians understand life is better on the Israeli side of the Jordan River.

With regard to the two-state solution, support remains stable at 40 percent, rising to 61 percent when framed as a Paleostinian state on 1967 borders. Support for armed struggle is an incredible 41 percent.

Looking at these numbers, it is difficult to make the case that the Paleostinian people are a peace-loving nation. According to the data revealed by this poll, Paleostinians support Hamas, want the terrorist group to remain armed, and want to kick the Jewish people out of the Old City of Jerusalem and bar them from the Western Wall.

This is not peace. This is bullying and a desire to erase the Jewish people’s connection to their ancestral homeland, while supporting a Moslem Brüderbund terrorist group responsible for the destruction of Paleostinian life in Gaza and the deaths of thousands.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hostages Sagui Dekel-Chen, Sasha Troufanov and Iair Horn slated for release on Saturday, to be traded for 369 Paleo jailbirds; PIJ shares video of Troufanov
2025-02-15
[IsraelTimes] Dekel-Chen to meet his daughter for first time; Horn’s brother, kidnapped while visiting for Simchat Torah, not on list for 1st phase

The Prime Minister’s Office announced on Friday that it had received the names of three male hostages — Sagui Dekel Chen, Sasha Troufanov and Iair Horn — slated for release from captivity in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 on Saturday, as part of the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange under the ongoing ceasefire agreement with the Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...
 terror group.

Hamas notified Israel of the identities of the three hostages set to be released via Egyptian and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i mediators, having backed down on Thursday from a threat to delay the next release of captives. Hamas had accused Israel earlier in the week of failing to meet its aid obligations under the truce. Israel had rejected the charge and threatened to resume the war.

In a statement welcoming the announcement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum noted the "shocking footage of hostage survivors" released last week and "the latest signs of life" that relatives of captives still held in Gaza have received recently from Israelis freed under the truce deal.

"We must reach a comprehensive and immediate agreement, without gaps or delays, to return all hostages — the living for rehabilitation and the dear departed for proper burial," the forum said in a statement.

Israel had in recent days appeared to endorse US President Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
’s demand that all hostages be freed promptly, rather than just the three set for the next release, but was vague on the matter.

Jerusalem is reportedly still pushing for further live hostages to be released in the upcoming days, but a senior Arab official told The Times of Israel on Thursday that it was unlikely the terror group would deviate from the original timeframe of the agreement.

Three hostages released by Hamas last weekend — Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami — came back gaunt, malnourished and suffering from serious health issues.

The release of the next three hostages, who were all kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, was expected to begin on Saturday morning, though the timing had not been confirmed as of Friday night.

TROUFANOV WAS ABDUCTED WITH HIS FAMILY, HIS FATHER WAS KILLED
Russian-Israeli citizen Troufanov, 29, was taken hostage along with three members of his family — grandmother Irena Tati, mother Yelena (Lena) and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen — from their home in the Gaza border community. His father Vitaly Troufanov was killed during the onslaught.

Hamas released the three women in November 2023 as part of a week-long truce.

Yelena Troufanov arrived on Friday at the site where she will be reunited with her son. She became observant over the past year, and came to the location near the Gaza border a day early to avoid traveling on the Sabbath.

"I ask you all to light Shabbat candles with joy," she said in footage posted to social media. "Make a wish that all our hostages come home soon, and that there will be peace, quiet and calm in the land of Israel for the nation of Israel."

According to a biography released by his family, Sasha Troufanov works as an engineer in Amazon’s cloud division. His family immigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union 25 years ago.

Moscow has pushed for Troufanov’s release multiple times since he was kidnapped, including since the January ceasefire was announced.

The Russian-Israeli is being held by the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
 terror group, which indicated it had agreed to the release.

Sapir Cohen recounted seeing armed holy warriors seize a bleeding Sasha on October 7, whose last words to her were "No, no." In May 2024, Paleostinian Islamic Jihad released a video of Sasha, followed by another in November 2024, after his second birthday in captivity.

Another propaganda video was released on Friday night which showed Troufanov walking on the coast of the Gaza Strip, as well as fishing. He is also seen writing a note, apparently thanking his captors, something Hamas and Islamic Jihad have forced hostages to do before releasing them. The Troufanov family asked Israeli media not to publish the video or stills from it.

The last two Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza by the PIJ, Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Mozes, were handed over to the Red Thingy in an uncontrolled and dangerous event outside the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, surrounded by hundreds of masked button men and large, seething crowds.

Israel has warned strongly against such an event recurring.

Hebrew media reported that the three men were expected to be handed over in at least two different locations on Saturday — Troufanov from Khan Younis and Dekel-Chen and Horn, who are being held by Hamas, from one or two other locations in Gaza.

DEKEL-CHEN CONFRONTED THE TERRORISTS
US-Israeli citizen Dekel-Chen, 36, saw Hamas-led title='terrorists '>holy warriors entering Nir Oz and was among the first to raise the alarm. He was last heard from at 9:30 a.m. on October 7, 2023, according to his father, Connecticut-born Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a Hebrew University professor who also lives at Nir Oz.

Sagui was working in the kibbutz’s machine shop when the attack began, his family said. After ensuring his wife and children was safely in their home’s secure room, he confronted the holy warriors and was taken captive.

Sagui’s mother, Neomit, was taken captive along with her neighbors in an electric cart that was headed toward Gaza when an IDF helicopter shot at the holy warriors and driver. Neomit, injured, made her way back toward the kibbutz, and was eventually rescued and evacuated.

His then-pregnant wife Avital and two young daughters also survived the massacre in Nir Oz. His third daughter, Shachar, born two months later, celebrated her first birthday in December without her father.

"There’s no way for us to know if he’s even aware that his wife and two — now three — daughters survived the massacre at Nir Oz," the hostage’s father told The Times last month. "I think that alone must be torture."

According to a biography provided by his family, Sagui is a social and business entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of the Bikurim Youth Village and an avid tennis player. Friends and family know him as creative, honest, and humble.

IAIR HORN, ABDUCTED ALONG WITH HIS BROTHER
Argentinian-Israel citizen Horn, 46, was also kidnapped from his home on October 7, as Hamas holy warriors swarmed through the kibbutz, killing or kidnapping a quarter of the southern community’s residents.

His younger brother, Eitan Horn, 38, who was visiting from Kfar Saba for the holiday weekend, was also kidnapped and is still held in Gaza. He is not on the list of "humanitarian" cases — women, children, elderly individuals and the infirm — slated for release in the first stage of the ceasefire.

According to a biography provided by his family, Iair is known for organizing Purim parties and managing the kibbutz pub, and is an avid fan of Hapoel Beersheba football club. Friends and family describe him as someone who loves life and is deeply connected to his family and kibbutz community.

Following the announcement of the three civilian hostages set to be freed, the Hamas prisoners’ media office said Israel would release 369 Paleostinian prisoners on Saturday as part of the exchange, including 36 serving life sentences.

The remaining 333 prisoners slated were detained in Gaza after October 7, over the course of the war.

As of Friday, under the terms of the ceasefire that went into effect last month, 17 hostages are still slated to be released under the deal’s first stage, nine of whom are believed to still be alive.

Recent weeks have seen the terror group release 16 Israelis and five Thai hostages under the arrangement, which also requires Israel to free some 2,000 Paleostinian security prisoners, including hundreds of holy warriors serving life sentences and lengthy terms for attacks.

But serious doubts remain over subsequent stages of the deal, which have yet to be negotiated.

Seventy-three of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

369 Palestinian detainees to be released today, including Ahmed Barghouti, serving 13 life terms for deadly Second Intifada terrorism
[IsraelTimes] The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group says Israel will today release 369 Palestinian inmates in exchange for hostages Sasha Troufanov, Iair Horn and Sagui Dekel-Chen, with 24 of them expected to be deported.

The vast majority, 333 people, are “prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after October 7,” the group says.

Among the most prominent of those set to be released is Ahmed Barghouti, 48, a close aide of Fatah chief and Second Intifada terror leader Marwan Barghouti, who was arrested alongside Marwan Barghouti in 2002.

Ahmed Barghouti has been serving 13 life sentences for carrying out a series of terror attacks during the Second Intifada that killed 12 Israelis. He is reportedly set to be deported abroad via Egypt.

Islamic Jihad releases propaganda video of Sasha Troufanov receiving ‘release’ papers
[IsraelTimes] The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has released another propaganda video of Sasha Troufanov ahead of his release this morning.

The video shows Islamic Jihad terror operatives handing Troufanov a document with the “decision to release him.”

Troufanov is seen being held in a tunnel in the video.

Troufanov’s family has requested that media outlets not publish the video or stills from it.

Islamic Jihad has issued multiple videos of Troufanov during his captivity, including one last night showing him walking on Gaza’s coast.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Following release, elderly Palestinian security prisoner bashes Hamas, price of Oct. 7
2025-02-03
[IsraelTimes] Citing Gaza war’s heavy Palestinian death toll, 69-year-old Mohammed al-Tous tells Arab outlets that he is warning his grandchildren against armed resistance

Recently released Paleostinian security prisoner Mohammed al-Tous spoke out against Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s October 7 massacre in two separate interviews to Arab media this past week, citing the human cost of the ensuing Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 war.

"Today, I tell my grandchildren not to go down the path of attacks and resistance," the 69-year-old ex-detainee said in a Friday interview with the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya outlet. "We don’t want our freedom to come at the expense of our children’s’ lives."

Al-Tous is the oldest security prisoner freed so far as part of the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal.

A member of the Paleostinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, he was arrested in 1985 for organizing attacks on Israelis in and around Jerusalem. He went on to spend 40 years in prison.

Israeli authorities deported al-Tous to Egypt upon his release in the second round of the exchange, which saw 200 security prisoners traded for four female Israeli hostages. He was one of 121 prisoners serving life sentences freed that day.

He was one of the few prisoners detained before the 1993 Oslo Accords not released as part of those agreements.

On Wednesday, al-Tous gave an interview to the Emirati al-Mashhad news outlet, in which he criticized Hamas leadership when asked about the October 7 attack that ultimately led to his release.

"If I had known the cost of my freedom, I would have stayed in prison... A leader who is thinking of carrying out a large attack must be aware of the cost. It is unacceptable that the cost of our release from prison is a drop of blood from a Paleostinian child," he said.

Al-Tous added that he encountered jugged
Please don't kill me!
 Second Intifada leader Marwan Barghouti multiple times while in prison.

"I met Marwan Barghouti more than once, the last of which was two years ago. He was in good condition," he told the outlet.

Barghouti, a top figure in Fatah serving five life sentences for planning attacks during the Second Intifada, is envisioned by many Paleostinians as a potential successor to Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
In another Friday interview with The Independent, al-Tous spoke in favor of political negotiations toward a two-state solution in order to "prevent bloodshed on both sides."

He urged unity within the Paleostinian national movement, calling on Hamas to reconcile with Fatah and accept the leadership of Abbas, now 89 years old.
Link


The Grand Turk
Qatar, Turkey to host Palestinian murder convicts freed in hostage deal — officials
2025-01-29
[IsraelTimes] Decision on where to send the prisoners is coordinated with Israel, officials tell ToI; Hamas said to vow Fatah and PFLP terror chiefs will be released in ceasefire’s 2nd phase

Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
 and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
 are slated to host the Paleostinian murder convicts who were released and subsequently deported to Egypt as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
, two officials tell The Times of Israel.

Israel demanded that the Paleostinians convicted of the most series crimes not be released to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 or the West Bank. Egypt agreed to serve as a temporary landing spot for those murder convicts, 70 of whom were released last week and now reside in Cairo.

Turkey has agreed to take in around 15 of those Paleostinians and Qatar is expected to take in the remainder, though talks are ongoing and an additional country may be asked to host some of the prisoners deported later on in the deal, according to a regional official and an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.

The decision on where to send the various Paleostinian murder convicts is done in coordination with Israel, the two officials said.

A number of senior Hamas members already live in Qatar, where Israeli officials frequently travel to for hostage negotiations, and Turkey has previously hosted top members of the terror group.

Israel has committed to releasing 1,904 prisoners, including 737 serving life sentences, in return for 33 women, children, men over 50 and those considered especially ill, during the ceasefire deal’s 42-day first phase. Seven Israeli hostages have already been released, in return for 290 Paleostinian prisoners, including 121 serving life sentences.

Talks have yet to begin on the deal’s second stage, in which Hamas is expected to release young, relatively healthy male hostages, including soldiers, for whom the terrorist organization is likely to demand Israel pay a heavier price.

The Kan public broadcaster reported Tuesday that Hamas has promised the families of prominent terror convicts Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat that they will be released from Israeli prison in the second phase.

According to the source, Hamas is preparing a strategic plan to take over the West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority after the latter’s elderly leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
 is no longer in office. If Hamas secures his release, Barghouti, a member of Abbas’s Fatah movement, will owe the terror group his life and freedom, Kan said.

Earlier this month, Kan cited a Paleostinian source as saying Hamas had prepared a list of five "heavy" prisoners that it wants Israel to release in the deal’s next phases: Barghouti, and four Hamas prisoners cumulatively serving over 200 life sentences for the murders of dozens of Israelis. Saadat was not on the list.

Israel has reportedly ruled out releasing Barghouti — a demand Hamas is said to have made as early as December 2023, two months into the Gaza war.

Saadat and Barghouti are senior terror chiefs considered icons by many Paleostinians. Both were arrested in 2002, at the height of the 2000-2005 Second Intifada.

Saadat, 72, the leader of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine (PFLP), was sentenced in 2008 to 30 years behind bars for criminal masterminding the 2001 liquidation of then-Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, who advocated for Israel to "transfer" Paleostinians abroad.

Barghouti, 64, was sentenced in 2004 to five life sentences for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.

Barghouti had been a leader of the Tanzim, an offshoot of Fatah. He is a popular political figure, especially among younger Paleostinians who see him as untainted by Fatah’s corruption and cooperation with Israel. He is considered a leading candidate to win potential Paleostinian national elections and has also been touted as someone who can bring both the West Bank and Gaza his wing.

Barghouti has petitioned the High Court of Justice against his prison conditions following his transfer to solitary confinement after October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led holy warriors stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

Hamas banished the Fatah-dominated PA from the Strip in 2007, a year after besting the secularist faction in the last Paleostinian legislative elections.

Although both belong to Fatah, Barghouti had launched a slate of candidates separate from Abbas’s during the 2021 legislative election, which Abbas ultimately canceled, accusing Israel of blocking East Jerusalem Paleostinians from voting.

Observers believe Abbas has avoided holding elections for years due to fear of defeat, despite his term officially expiring in 2009. He took power in 2004, following the death of Fatah founder Yasser Arafat.
Related:
Marwan Barghouti 01/21/2025 'Legends of the Resistance': Whom Israel Gave to Hamas in Exchange for Hostages
Marwan Barghouti 12/23/2024 Report: Israel demands 11 male hostages be among those freed in first stage of deal
Marwan Barghouti 12/22/2024 Hamas: The agreement on Gaza could see the light before the end of this year

Related:
Ahmad Saadat  01/20/2025 Israel frees 90 Palestinian security prisoners, who are welcomed with Hamas flags
Ahmad Saadat  05/09/2023 PFLP threatens escalation after leader put in solitary confinement in Israeli prison
Ahmad Saadat  02/02/2002 PFLP sez it won't work with PLO

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
'Legends of the Resistance': Whom Israel Gave to Hamas in Exchange for Hostages
2025-01-21
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] Hamas and Israel, after nearly 15 months of constant consultations, have reached a consensus on a hostage exchange. Following agreements reached earlier in the Qatari capital of Doha, both sides pledged to ensure the transfer of people on agreed lists and then move on to a more comprehensive settlement of the protracted conflict. However, the implementation of the agreements is still in question.

There are many in Israel who see their military-political defeat in a diplomatic victory and would not mind renegotiating the agreements already reached.

CONTOURS OF EXCHANGE
Tel Aviv agreed to hand over 1,890 Palestinian prisoners to its opponents in exchange for the release of 33 Israeli hostages. Thus, the “exchange rate” of prisoners was 87 to 1 in favor of Hamas, which caused a storm of jubilation among Palestinian factions and protests from the far-right forces in the Israeli parliament.

However, Israeli negotiators still managed to avoid a repeat of the infamous “Shalit deal” (2011), where the ratio was 1 to 1027 in favor of Palestine, and to get Hamas to include all living hostages in the exchange lists.

In addition, Tel Aviv decided to stretch out the hostage exchange process as long as possible, so as not to pander to Palestinian propaganda and not to fuel the belief in the “absolute triumph” of Hamas.

In the first round, 90 Palestinians were exchanged for three Israeli women.

The parties also chose Saturday as a permanent exchange day, agreeing to provide lists no less than a day before the chosen date.

As a result, by the end of the first stage of the deal (tentatively scheduled for March 5, 2025), Hamas and Tel Aviv expect to fully fulfill their obligations.

THE OLD GUARD
In the first exchange, Hamas released only civilians. An exchange of IDF prisoners is planned for the coming weeks.

However, many legendary and significant figures in the Palestinian movement were freed.

Thus, among others, veteran of the resistance and commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (the military wing of Fatah) Zakaria al-Zubeidi was released. He played a leading role in the Second Intifada (2000-2005) and seriously strengthened the potential of the Brigades, and the commanders he trained, in particular Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, caused many problems for the Israeli army and intelligence services.

For the past five years, al-Zubeidi has been held under special conditions in Gilboa prison, which is eloquently called "Israeli Alcatraz." The name of the commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades was erased from the lists by Israeli negotiators until the very last moment.

Also released was the deputy head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Khalida Jarrar, a figure well known not only in the Middle East. In the past, she was the official representative of Palestine to the Council of Europe and a fighter for the rights of prisoners. Jarrar, who had been held in solitary confinement for the past year and a half (something that far more seasoned field commanders were not “honored” with), became a symbol of oppression not only for the PFLP, but also for other Palestinian factions.

However, the high-profile names listed are only a small part of the extensive exchange list. And it may include much more odious figures.

Thus, back in May 2024, Arab media wrote that Hamas negotiators were fighting for the release of Marwan Barghouti, the most popular anti-Israeli politician and the founder of the youth militant wing of Fatah (the Tanzim movement).

Barghouti's release could well challenge the political monopoly of current Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, subsequently triggering a drift in Fatah from being a relatively neutral faction towards Israel towards direct confrontation and the formation of a political coalition with Hamas.

Thus, living symbols of resistance, belonging to different groups and movements, have already found themselves at liberty. However, the "common denominator" for them was Hamas, which played a decisive role in their release from captivity. This significantly raises the prestige of the movement and its "political weight" in Palestine, especially in conjunction with the laurels of "the winner of the IDF."

This fact will probably manifest itself in the medium term, setting a trend for all Palestinian-Israeli relations.

THE LINE OF SCHISM
As noted above, the Israeli government's decision to support the deal with Hamas provoked an explosion of indignation among the conservative wing.

Many felt that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “publicly capitulated” to the Palestinian forces (and by extension to Iran, which is celebrating the Palestinian victory as its own).

The leader of the far-right party "Jewish Power", Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who throughout the conflict criticized Netanyahu for "indecisive and half-hearted measures" against Hamas, resigned. Along with him, fellow party members - Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu and Minister of Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Yitzhak Wasserlauf - also left their posts in the government. "Jewish Power" distanced itself from the ruling coalition.

Another opponent of the Hamas deal, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also publicly criticized Netanyahu for his cowardice. And, although he did not resign like other "hawks", he demonstratively voted against the Hamas deal at a Knesset session. However, Smotrich quickly realized that he would not be able to gather a protest electorate around himself alone, especially after his recent quarrel with Ben-Gvir over disagreements on judicial reform, and therefore hastened to welcome the return of his fellow citizens from captivity.

After distancing Ben-Gvir's supporters, Netanyahu's government lost at least six votes in the Knesset, leaving the gap with the opposition at a minimum (62 votes to 52). And the deepening conflict with Smotrich threatens the loss of at least seven more mandates and, as a result, the loss of control over parliament (especially if the right-wing parties decide to officially join the opposition bloc).

In this case, the early elections that Netanyahu has so carefully avoided could become a reality. This means that Israeli hawks have a convenient pretext to force the prime minister to torpedo the deal with Hamas immediately after the last Israeli hostage leaves the enclave.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Report: Israel demands 11 male hostages be among those freed in first stage of deal
2024-12-23
[IsraelTimes] Egyptian TV network says Hamas demanding ‘special consideration’ in exchange; Palestinian official tells BBC 90% of negotiations are done, but Philadelphi remains sticking point

As mediators in Cairo and Doha continued efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and the Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
 terror group, international reports purported to shed some light on some of the gaps remaining between the two parties.

An Egyptian report on Sunday claimed that Israel is demanding the freeing of 11 Israeli men in the first round of hostage releases, while a report from the BBC the previous evening said that the talks are 90 percent agreed upon, although control of the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
-Egypt border remains a sticking point.

Israel has been largely mum on any recent developments in the negotiations being brokered by Egypt and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying last week that "that the less we discuss this, the better." The families of the hostages still being held captive have demanded in public statements that a deal be reached to release all of their loved ones in one stage, calling a partial release a "death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
" for those left behind.

Unnamed sources told Egypt’s al-Ghad outlet on Sunday that Israel has requested the inclusion of 11 men on the list of hostages to be released in the first phase of a potential hostage-ceasefire deal, with Hamas apparently demanding further compensation in return for setting them free.

According to the report, the first phase of the potential deal between Israel and Hamas will see 250 Paleostinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons in exchange for the children held in Gaza, the five female soldiers, and the older and sick captives.

While not specifically mentioned by the report, it is assumed that the first round of releases will also include the female hostages who are not serving in the military.

According to the report, Israel has requested the release of 34 hostages in the first phase, including 11 considered by Hamas to be soldiers. The terror group classifies all Israeli men of military age to be soldiers.

However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
 al-Ghad said Hamas had agreed for the 11 to be included in the first phase in return for "special consideration" in the deal, implying that Paleostinian prisoners who also do not fit the agreed-upon categories could be released.

The outlet said other areas under discussion include the reopening of the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the potential withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim Corridor, which divides north Gaza from the south, and the return of Gazook civilians to the north of the Strip without conditions, but with vehicle inspections.

The report also claimed that talks were being held on a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, a route that Netanyahu long vowed would remain under Israeli control, although Defense Minister Israel Katz reportedly said last week that the corridor "would not constitute an obstacle to a deal; there is flexibility from Hamas on this issue."

But a senior Paleostinian official involved in the negotiations told the BBC on Saturday that Philadelphi is one of the areas of contention, claiming that 90% of other issues in the talks have already been decided upon.

The official said that ongoing talks in Doha are considering the potential creation of a buffer zone along Gaza’s border with Israel that would be several kilometers wide, which would have an Israeli "military presence."

Once these issues are resolved a potential ceasefire could begin within days, the official told BBC.

According to the report, the deal will see 20 Paleostinian prisoners released for every female soldier freed in the first stage of the ceasefire, with the names of those prisoners not yet decided upon.

The report did not say if any male hostages will be released in the first stage and also does not mention either children or the women held in Gaza who are not serving in the military.

The BBC said Gazook civilians will be permitted to return to the north of the Strip "under a system with Egyptian/Qatari oversight," echoing similar claims in the Egyptian report. Additionally, around 500 trucks will bring humanitarian aid into Gaza every day.

The BBC reported that the third stage of such a deal would see the end of the war, with Gaza to be "overseen by a committee of technocrats from the enclave, who would not have previous political affiliations but would have the backing of all Paleostinian factions."

The report said it is assumed that the released prisoners will not include Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.

Barghouti, 65, is often touted as one of the top candidates to succeed octogenarian the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
 as leader of the Paleostinian Authority. He is especially favored by the younger generation, who perceive him as untainted by the PA’s corruption and collaboration with Israel.

Responding to a media report that Barghouti’s family recently visited Qatar to discuss his release to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
 as part of a hostage deal, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement on Saturday declaring, "the terrorist Marwan Barghouti will not be released if and when a deal is made to release the hostages."

Hamas-led Lions of Islam kidnapped 251 people during their murderous onslaught through southern Israel on October 7, 2023, including soldiers from IDF bases along the border, partygoers from a music festival and families snatched from their homes. Ninety-six of the hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

An Israeli TV report on Saturday evening claimed that Hamas has still not provided Israel with a list of living hostages held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip who would be exchanged during a deal.

Israeli official confirms: Hamas has provided ‘signs of life’ for several hostages held in Gaza
Several.
[IsraelTimes] As working groups continue their efforts in Doha to hammer out a hostage deal in Gaza, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel that Hamas has provided “signs of life” for several hostages.

Israel knows the whereabouts of most of the hostages, says the official, but would not say whether Hamas had provided a list of living hostages.

Israel will not accept an end to the war as part of a deal, says the official, but instead would agree to something along the lines of a “prolonged ceasefire.”

Ninety-six of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas: The agreement on Gaza could see the light before the end of this year
2024-12-22
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] ”See? We’re cooperating — please don’t hurt us!”

Israel says Hamas has yet to give list of living hostages to be released — report

[IsraelTimes] Arab diplomat tells ToI that main hang-up is wording about end of war vs. end of ‘operation’; Israel reportedly to provide a list of 70-100 security prisoners it refuses to release

Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...
 has still not provided Israel with a list of living hostages held by terror groups in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 Strip that would be exchanged during a hostage-ceasefire deal, according to a Saturday television news report citing Israeli officials.

Channel 12 news first reported that the terror group had yet to hand over the list of names, but said that nevertheless, Israeli officials believe that progress is being made in the ongoing negotiations.

Earlier on Saturday, Hebrew media reported that the head of the IDF intelligence corps, Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, visited Cairo over the weekend for meetings with his Egyptian counterparts. The report clarified that the visit was not focused on the hostage talks, but rather security cooperation.

Channel 12 reported later that Israel denied that Binder had visited Cairo.

However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
 delegations of leaders from Hamas, Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
 and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine did convene in Cairo on Friday to discuss the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

In a readout of the meeting, Hamas said the possibility of reaching a deal "is closer than ever if the enemy stops setting new conditions."

All three terror groups are believed to be holding hostages throughout Gaza, kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel.

The factions "stressed everyone’s keenness to stop the aggression against our people," the Hamas statement said, apparently referring to its demand for a permanent ceasefire.

The nature of the ceasefire deal is the main issue of contention in the talks, with Hamas demanding a permanent end to the fighting, while Israel is seeking a temporary pause during which some of the hostages would be released followed by a resumption of its fighting to finish dismantling the terror group’s military and governing capabilities, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel earlier this week.

Israel has sought to have the agreement refer to the ceasefire as one that "end[s] the military operation," while Hamas is insisting that the text states that the ceasefire will "end the war."

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his stance against a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, saying he would only agree to a temporary pause as part of a hostage release deal, and reiterating his plan to see Hamas completely dismantled.

"I’m not going to agree to end the war before we remove Hamas," he said. "We’re not going to leave them in power in Gaza, 30 miles from Tel Aviv. It’s not going to happen."

Also on Saturday, responding to a media report that Paleostinian security prisoner Marwan Barghouti’s family recently visited Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
 to discuss his release to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
 member, but not the most reliable...
 as part of a hostage deal, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement declaring, "the terrorist Marwan Barghouti will not be released if and when a deal is made to release the hostages."

Hamas has reportedly demanded the release of the top Fatah figure and locked away
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
 intifada leader as part of the hostage deal with Israel.

Barghouti, 64, is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada. He is often touted as one of the top candidates to succeed octogenarian the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
 as leader of the Paleostinian Authority. He is especially favored by the younger generation, who perceive him as untainted by the PA’s corruption and collaboration with Israel.

Following the PMO’s vow not to release Barghouti, Channel 12 reported that Israel was insisting on presenting a list to the mediators with the names of 70 to 100 security prisoners who it would refuse to release as part of an agreement.

Numerous attempts to reach a new hostage deal since a week-long truce in November, 2023, saw the release of 105 hostages have repeatedly failed, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of sabotaging efforts and refusing to budge on key issues.

However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
 the current round of negotiations has seemingly come close to securing a deal that would guarantee the release of at least some of the 96 hostages kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel last year and still being held captive in Gaza.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
At weekly protest, protesters threaten again to hate PM until he somehow gets Hamas to agree to trade peace for hostages
2024-12-15
The exact details are available for perusal at the link. We care about the externalities here.
[IsraelTimes] At weekly rally, hostage’s mom vows to be PM’s ‘worst nightmare’ if son not returned. As optimism rises on possibility of Gaza deal, report says Netanyahu most determined to reach agreement since November 2023 release, but gaps remain between sides

Thousands of protesters rallied in Tel Aviv and other locations Saturday night against the government and for a Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 hostage release deal, as several news reports cited progress toward a potential deal, and as a television network said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the most determined he had been in over a year to reach an agreement to free remaining captives.
They used to get 200,000-500,000. This is just the irreducible remnant, paid cadres and unpaid enthusiasts, for whom protesting is their weekly scheduled activity.
Some 2,000 people rallied outside the Israel Defense Forces headquarters on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, as the Hostages and Missing Families Families Forum held its more staid weekly rally a block away at so-called Hostages Square. Both were preceded by an anti-government group rally at the Begin-Kaplan Junction, known by activists as Democracy Square.

The first phase of any deal would likely see the release of only some of the hostages — those defined as humanitarian cases including women, children, sick and older people — as Israel agrees to halt its campaign in Gaza for a limited time. Young men like Zangauker would only be up for release at a later stage, if the sides move toward a more permanent ceasefire.

Saturday’s Channel 12 report said a key dispute between sides in the negotiations was the number of hostages to be freed in a first phase, with Israel determined to release as many as possible.
The disagreement being that Hamas does not want to give up their hostage-human shields. Despite claims to the contrary, they have not yet revealed who among the hostages is living, and who has died or been killed. Possibly — given that at least some of the hostages were handed out like war booty to those not Hamas — they don’t actually know in many cases who is holding them and what their status is. When was the last time we heard about mothers and babies among the hostages?
Although Israel has reportedly agreed to a temporary withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border, Jerusalem did not confirm or deny the change in position to Channel 12. Netanyahu previously asserted troops must remain in the area to prevent Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
 from smuggling in weapons to rearm, while Hamas has demanded a full withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Strip. Security officials have argued Israel could withdraw and retake the corridor at a later time if necessary.

Channel 12 also said mediators were pressing Israel to agree to an all-encompassing deal that would bring the war to an end, rather than a phased agreement.

Ahead of the Saturday night rallies, the brother of hostage Itzik Elgarat urged US President-elect Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
 to press Netanyahu to agree to a deal.

"We believe in your strength to quickly bring about a deal. Don’t let up on Netanyahu, demand a comprehensive deal from him that will return everyone and end the war," Danny Elgarat said alongside other hostage families during their weekly press appearance outside the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.

The US President-elect’s special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler is set to visit Israel next week for the first time since he was chosen for the role, an Israeli official told the Axios news site Saturday.

Down the road, hundreds of people attended the Hostage Families Forum’s weekly rally at Hostages Square.

The Forum has said any deal needs to bring back all the hostages at once instead of a phased deal that only releases some.

Ahead of that protest, some 1,000 anti-government protesters crammed into the Begin-Kaplan Junction, also known as Democracy Square. Stages were set up there, with speakers perorating against the government in tandem, each with their own take on how it was threatening democracy.

On one stage, set up by a group registering volunteers to engage in non-violent mostly peaceful civil disobedience against the government, a speaker said those signing up would be instructed at a moment’s notice on a location where they were to sit and disrupt traffic, possibly for days on end. He estimated that would come if the government ousts Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara or Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

A growing number of coalition politicians and cabinet ministers have called for Baharav-Miara’s ouster due to frustration with her refusal to defend various controversial and unprecedented measures the government seeks to advance, but which she has determined would be against the law.

Netanyahu’s office denied reports last month that he was planning to fire the Shin Bet’s Bar.

Weekly protests also took place in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba and other cities and intersections around the country.

Outside the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, Maayan Sherman, the mother of fallen IDF soldier Ron Sherman whose remains were recovered in January, called on President Isaac Herzog "to not stand on the side and act for the release of hostages now."

According to the Ynet news site, former retired IAF Brig. Gen. Amir Haskel and leading protest figure was arrested in Jerusalem. Police said they arrested a total of four people at the rally in Jerusalem, two for disrupting public order, and two others for trying to prevent police from carrying out one of the arrests.

The Ynet news site reported hundreds of anti-government protesters marching in support of the hostages and against government attempts to revive judicial overhaul legislation in Rehovot, while 1,000 protesters blocked the Karkur Junction in northern Israel.

Meanwhile,
...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin...
 Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi discussed the efforts to reach a deal with visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, his office said Saturday. This comes a day after Sullivan told Channel 12 news that regional developments, including the shock collapse of the Assad regime, the ceasefire with Hezbollah in Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
 and Israel’s killing of Hamas leaders, presented an opportunity for a deal to free the 100 captives held in Gaza.

Israel said to reject release of Marwan Barghouti in hostage deal as Egyptian, US officials meet in Cairo

[IsraelTimes] Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi discusses efforts to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Sissi’s office says.

The officials who met Sissi in Cairo include US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, it says.

The statement comes as Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar quotes an unnamed Egyptian official as saying that Israel has objected to some of the names of Palestinian security prisoners requests for release in exchange for hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023, including popular Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.

Barghouti is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.

“Israel has a vision of alternative lists of Palestinian prisoners, including people who were recently arrested, which could delay the drafting of the agreement,” the Egyptian source is quoted as saying.

The source adds that Israel has requested that some of the Palestinian security prisoners be sent abroad instead of to the West Bank or Gaza, “which may be accepted by the mediators as a compromise to end this new obstacle.”
Related:
Hostages Square: 2024-12-09 Hamas video shows Gaza hostage Zangauker for first time as thousands rally for deal
Hostages Square: 2024-12-03 Katz nixes reserve duty of protest leader who urged refusal to serve over judicial overhaul
Hostages Square: 2024-11-24 Rallies stress winter dangers to hostages, as Hamas claims female captive killed in Gaza
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas treads tightrope as PA cracks down on terror groups in the West Bank
2024-10-27
[IsraelTimes] Campaign in Tubas shows authority’s resolve to disprove its many skeptics, but represents ‘low-hanging fruit’ unlikely to loosen Hamas, PIJ grip on West Bank’s north, says analyst

In the West Bank city of Tubas, the Paleostinian Authority has been rounding up terror operatives who are spoiling for a fight with Israel and challenging its own rule, seeking to show it can help shape the future for Paleostinians after the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
 has poured forces into Tubas in an avowed push to quash lawlessness and deny Israel pretexts to raid the city.

His adversaries, Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
 and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
 (PIJ), say the PA is serving Israel’s agenda at a time when Israel is going after their operatives in the West Bank as they battle Israel in Gaza, sharpening old divisions between Abbas and the terror groups.

Residents of Tubas said festivities between the murderous Moslems and the PA this month involved heavy machine guns and bombs in some of the worst violence they can remember.

It highlights the precarious position of the PA, which was established by the 1994 Oslo Accords with Israel, as a stepping stone to a Paleostinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The so-called two-state solution appears as far as ever, though it has come back into international focus of late as a way to bring peace. Israel, however, mistrusts Abbas and the PA, accusing it of incitement to terrorism in its education system and by paying stipends to tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
 terror operatives and families of slain terrorists.

Abbas’s secularist Fatah faction also recently issued condolences on the "martyrdom" of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, hailing as "a great national leader" the architect of the assault that sparked the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led murderous Moslems stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

Amid the war in Gaza, Israel has also launched several counterterrorism raids across the West Bank, especially in the north. The army says it has arrested 5,250 wanted Paleostinians, including 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the PA health ministry, 716 Paleostinians have been killed in the raids. Israel says the vast majority were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or murderous Moslems carrying out attacks.

The Ramallah-based PA controlled Gaza until 2007, when Hamas routed forces loyal to Abbas, but is now confined to running patches of the West Bank — often in coordination with Israeli security forces, who control the territory.

The United States has said it wants to see the war in Gaza end with the Strip and the West Bank unified under a reformed and revitalized PA.

For Abbas, 88, the Tubas campaign is partly about weakening the grip Hamas and PIJ have gained over the northern West Bank, in what his Fatah sees as an Iran-backed attempt to undermine its position, according to Fatah officials and security sources.

It is also about disproving critics who view the PA as ineffective — a reputation that has overshadowed US-led diplomatic contacts over the role it might eventually play in Gaza, according to a former PA security official and an analyst.

A US State Department spokesperson declined comment on the Tubas operation, but acknowledged that US security cooperation with the PA includes funding, training and equipment.

Tubas Governor Ahmed al-Asaad said the PA had decided to strike with "an iron fist" against what he described as lawlessness and anarchy.

Two PA coppers have been maimed as their forces fought members of the "Tubas Battalion," an gang dominated by PIJ, and detained at least three of its members, including its leader.

STANDOFF
Al-Asaad said the PA was responding to public concern, giving the example of a bomb that had been recently planted near a school — apparently in preparation for an attack on Israeli forces.

"We don’t want — under the slogan of resistance or any other slogan — to destroy our country and to destroy Tubas," he said.

"Our approach is clear and is the approach of the president: the approach of peaceful, popular resistance and safeguarding security and order," he told Rooters in an interview.

The Paleostinian Authority has overhauled its operations in a variety of areas, assuaging some of the concern expressed by countries that provide aid.
On the whole, the revitalization effort had been "pretty well received," a European diplomat said.

On Saturday, dozens of PA coppers surrounded a building near Tubas where two Battalion button men were holed up, with one of them, Obada al-Masri, threatening to blow himself up, a source familiar with the incident said.

"We negotiated with him for almost five hours," said his father, Abdel Majid al-Masri, who was called to the scene to help convince his son to surrender.

He said his son eventually agreed after receiving guarantees he would be held in Tubas rather than at another PA jail where he was previously incarcerated and had suffered mistreatment.

Masri expressed relief that his son had been taken into PA custody rather than killed by Israeli forces, which have also been raiding Tubas in search of terror operatives and had previously tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
 his son for three years.

His son had chosen "the route of struggle to liberate Paleostine," he said, rejecting PA accusations that Battalion members were engaged in lawlessness.

PIJ condemned the operation, saying PA forces appeared to be aiming to eliminate resistance to Israel and their methods were no different.

LOW-HANGING FRUIT
PA security forces were heavily deployed, with a checkpoint on a road into the city, when Rooters visited Tubas this week, but the city was calm.

Ghaith al-Omari, an expert on PA affairs at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the Tubas campaign was a much-needed attempt by the PA to assert itself in a part of the West Bank where its control had been "practically absent."

"The PA understands that nobody sees it as being capable of running Gaza and everyone cites the fact that they can’t even run the northern West Bank," said Omari, who has advised both Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat.

But one operation did not make a reputation, Omari said, noting that Tubas represented "low-hanging fruit" and that Hamas and PIJ were weaker there than in Jenin, also in the northern West Bank.

With US support, the 35,000-strong PA security forces were reconstituted after the 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza.

Yet, the Washington Institute said in a July policy note, for the PA to assume governance in Gaza it would need extensive recruitment, equipment, vetting and training, a process it said would take years.

Israel, which accuses the PA of support for terrorism, has also rejected the notion of PA governance in Gaza.

While declining to comment on a potential role for PA security forces in post-war Gaza, the US State Department spokesperson reiterated that sustained peace in Gaza "must include Paleostinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Paleostinian Authority."

In the West Bank, the biggest issue was that PA security forces were "really, really unpopular in the north," Omari said.

A September opinion poll showed that 89% of Paleostinians in the West Bank want Abbas to resign, and that Hamas has more support than Fatah there. Polls by the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research have consistently shown that Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
 by Israel for murder, would win any presidential vote.

Omari said: "To do effective security you need both capabilities but also you need credibility and legitimacy."
Related:
Tubas: 2024-09-14 IDF: UNRWA staffer killed in West Bank raid was hurling explosives at troops
Tubas: 2024-09-11 Man critically injured as Palestinian tanker rams West Bank bus stop
Tubas: 2024-09-11 IDF renews major crackdown in northern West Bank, now operating in Tulkarem area
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
'The Butcher of Khan Yunis': Hamas's New Leadership Reveals War Prospects
2024-08-09
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] Official representatives of the Hamas movement announced the appointment of a new head of the Politburo in place of Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed earlier in Tehran. The post was taken by Yahya Sinwar, known among Israelis by the telling nickname the Butcher of Khan Yunis.

Sinwar's appointment came as a surprise to many (including the US and Israel) - until recently, the "pragmatist" Khaled Meshal was tipped to head the movement's Politburo. Apparently, this was based on the expectation that his diplomatic and political experience would allow the situation in Gaza to be brought to a "draw" and the line of gradual settlement laid down by Haniyeh to be continued.

However, it was Sinwar who opposed Mashal's candidacy and took his place in the movement's imaginary management structure, which came as a surprise to many.

A LIVING SYMBOL OF RESISTANCE
Sinwar's political biography is replete with high-profile events, and his public image is almost entirely built on the idea of ​​opposing Israel.

In addition to being at the origins of the "military wing" of Hamas, Sinwar's brainchild is the Majd intelligence service, which is designed to identify Israeli agents and informants in the ranks of the resistance. Sinwar played an important role in developing Operation Al-Aqsa Flood (which began the current confrontation in the Gaza Strip). It is not surprising that "super terrorist" and "7/10 ideologist" were later added to his already existing nickname, the Butcher of Khan Yunis.

Official Hamas sources emphasize that Sinwar was elected head of the Politburo unanimously, although until recently it was believed that the movement’s leadership had split into factions and did not support any of Haniyeh’s potential replacements (with the possible exception of Meshal, who is “relatively equidistant” from all camps).

What makes the situation interesting is that the political wing of the movement has de facto completely subordinated itself to the military, where from the first days the readiness to “fight to victory” and not make concessions to the Israelis prevailed.

The reshuffle in the Hamas politburo, given some of Sinwar's personal characteristics, casts doubt on the likelihood of continuing the course towards a peaceful settlement.

Quite the opposite: with the strengthening of the “military” camp, forceful methods of solving problems come to the forefront.

THE SHADOW OF THE "SHALIT DEAL"
Israel reacted to the news of Sinwar's appointment as head of the Politburo in a completely expected manner, promising to "catch and punish" him in the near future.

Although this is more of a routine reminder – threats against the new head of the Politburo were voiced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the first days of the crisis, thus preceding Israel’s Operation Iron Swords.

Sinwar's assassination does indeed have significant symbolic significance for the Israeli leadership.

Of course, the new head of the Politburo is one of the "architects" of the current crisis, and his death will raise the cabinet's ratings to incredible heights. But Netanyahu also faces the unspoken task of nullifying the negative effect of the "Shalit deal" of 2011, under which Israel exchanged a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including Sinwar.

It is especially important for the Israeli Prime Minister to put an end to the story of the “deal” of the last decade – its legacy prevents him from objectively assessing the progress of the negotiations on the exchange of prisoners. Moreover, the Israelis still hold many important figures for the Palestinian movement in custody – among them the former head of Fatah, Marwan Barghouti, whose release could strengthen the position of the Palestinian Authority, which is disadvantageous for Tel Aviv. Netanyahu does not want to repeat the previous mistakes.

On the other hand, the elimination of Sinwar, which the Israeli “hawks” are insisting on, is guaranteed to put an end to the negotiation process and will finally undermine trust in Israel not only on the part of Hamas, but also other Palestinian factions, including the quite negotiable Fatah.

WASHINGTON'S POSITION
The US is warning Israel against trying to inadvertently "push" Hamas into withdrawing from the Gaza deal discussions. And it's not even about the image losses the White House could suffer from the failure of the "peace plan" proposed by the Democrats.

Washington estimates that of the 24 Hamas battalions operating in the Gaza Strip at the start of Operation Iron Swords, only three had suffered irreparable losses. The rest remained relatively combat-ready, with at least eight units suffering virtually no losses.

These data differ significantly from the victorious reports of the Israeli General Staff, which claims that 22 Hamas battalions have been “irrevocably defeated.”

In addition, the movement can quickly increase its striking power by recruiting relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on the enclave. At the same time, there is a danger of Hamas's networks of influence "spreading" to the West Bank, where anti-Israeli sentiment has also increased, including amid reports of a possible Barghouti swap.

The White House also has good reason to fear that if diplomatic settlement fails, Hamas will focus all available resources on driving the Israelis out of the enclave. This, coupled with the growing activity of Lebanese Hezbollah, creates the risk of constant pressure on Israel's defense system, which Iran will not fail to take advantage of.

However, there are also those who remain optimistic about what is happening.

Thus, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken believes that the election of Sinwar as head of the Politburo will change little in the negotiation process, and the finalization of the Gaza deal (in one form or another) is a matter of time.

Blinken argues his position by the fact that Sinwar, being one of the most influential figures in the Hamas structure, could not help but influence the course of the negotiations on Gaza while the head of the Politburo was still alive. This is indirectly confirmed by Palestinian negotiators, who noted that not a single step of the Hamas delegation took place without Sinwar's approval.

DELAYED FINAL
It is possible that Israel will take Washington's position into account and will not take any drastic steps in the near future, especially since it is receiving quite tempting offers from Iran through third countries: renunciation of revenge for Haniyeh in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Such a scenario would hypothetically suit everyone, including Sinwar. However, the latter could clearly demand more, including a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.

In this context, Netanyahu will most likely allow the new head of the Politburo to act as freely as possible and even put the issue point-blank, dictating to Tel Aviv the terms of ending the conflict. With the sole purpose of Hamas being the first to leave the Gaza deal and thereby absolving the Israelis of responsibility for its collapse.

And only after this can one recall the previous promises to eliminate the Butcher from Khan Yunis.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Sinister Hamas terms would let it keep most hostages, win the war, inflame the West Bank
2024-05-11
[IsraelTimes] It took the US more than a day to internalize that Hamas had not in fact accepted a hostages-for-truce proposal. But the text of its ’agreement’ is far more duplicitous than that.

On Tuesday night, more than a day after Hamas

 claimed to have approved what it said was the Egyptian and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i mediators’ proposal "regarding a ceasefire agreement," the US State Department front man Matthew Miller finally declared publicly, "That is not what they did."

Rather, said Miller, "They responded with amendments or a counterproposal." The US, he said, was "working through the details of that now."

In fact, close examination of the Hamas document, as issued (Arabic) by the terror group itself, shows that far from containing "amendments" or a remotely viable counterproposal, it is constructed with incendiary sophistication to ensure that Hamas survives the war and regains control over the entire Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 Strip. (Quotations from the Hamas text in this piece are from a translation by the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera website.)

But that’s far from all.

It is also calculated to ensure that Hamas secures further key, immensely far-reaching goals without having to meet the prime Israeli requirement for a deal: the release of all the hostages. In fact, Hamas can abrogate the deal, with all of its key goals achieved and then some, while continuing to hold almost all of the hostages.

Among those goals is one of the most central Hamas objectives since it invaded Israel on October 7 — seeing its declared war of destruction against the Jewish state expand to the West Bank. By extension, the terms of the document are also designed to destroy US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing...
’s grand vision of Saudi normalization and a wider Middle East coalition against Iran.

A STREAM OF OMINOUS CHANGES
Much has been made of the fact that, whereas Israel has repeatedly insisted it will not end the war as a condition for the release of the hostages, Hamas, in the opening paragraphs of its own sinister alternate proposal, specifies that one "aim" of the deal is "a return to a sustainable calm that leads to a permanent ceasefire." But relatively speaking, that’s splitting hairs: The proposal conveyed by the mediators to Hamas late last month, and described by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
 as an "extraordinarily generous" Israeli offer, reportedly provides for an "arrangement to restore sustainable calm" — which sounds like a near-euphemism for a permanent ceasefire.

Much has correctly been made of the fact, however, that, in the Hamas document, Israel is to cease military operations in the first six-week stage of the three-stage deal, in which 33 hostages are to be freed, and that the IDF must "withdraw completely" from Gaza and a "permanent cessation of military operations" must take effect before any more hostages are freed in the second stage.

Less widely appreciated is that the Hamas proposal states that, in the first stage, "internally displaced people in Gaza shall return to their areas of residence" and that "all residents of Gaza shall be allowed freedom of movement in all parts of the Strip," with all Israeli "aviation (military and reconnaissance)" in Gaza to cease for much of each day.

Combined with a partial withdrawal of IDF troops as further specified for this first stage, the effect of these demands would be to enable Hamas’s button men and officials to retake control of the entire Gaza Strip. The Hamas proposal does use the word "unarmed" in one clause to describe the displaced persons who would be allowed to return to their areas of residence, but the accompanying demands and provisions mean that Israel would have no right and no means under the proposal to impose any such limitation.

Even more significant, and largely unrecognized, however, is the radical reconfiguration in the Hamas document of the terms and process for the release of Israeli hostages.

The Hamas proposal is structured to enable it to release very few of the hostages in return not only for an end to the IDF’s campaign in Gaza and its survival and resumption of full control there, but also for a planned surge in support for Hamas in the West Bank, the further neutering of the Paleostinian Authority, and the potential major escalation of violence against Israel in and from the West Bank

Many of the relatives of the 128 Israelis still held in Gaza since October 7, alive and dead, have pleaded, desperately and understandably, for a deal at any or almost any price, including an end to the war, in return for the release of all, most, or even many of the hostages.

But the Hamas proposal is structured to enable it to release very few of the hostages in return not only for an end to the IDF’s campaign in Gaza and its survival and resumption of full control there, but also for a planned surge in support for Hamas in the West Bank, the further neutering of the Paleostinian Authority, and the potential major escalation of violence against Israel in and from the West Bank.

How so?

WHO GOES FREE
The Hamas proposal remakes the previous document under which Hamas was to release at least 33 living hostages in the first stage of the deal, at a rate of three hostages every three days from the first day that the deal takes effect.

In the Hamas proposal, as has been widely noted, it no longer commits to freeing 33 living hostages in the first stage — itself a concession by Israel, which had sought 40 living hostages in the first stage — but now says the 33 hostages may be "alive or dead."

Moreover, Hamas would release the first three hostages on only the third day of the deal taking effect, and thence "three other detainees every seven days." This means that whereas, in the Israel-backed proposal, all 33 hostages would go free in the course of the first month of the deal, the Hamas schedule means fewer than half of the 33 would be released in the first month.

Furthermore, the Hamas proposal specifies that the first hostages to be released will be "women as much as possible (civilians and female soldiers)." It raises the number of Paleostinian security prisoners to be released in exchange for each of the (believed five) living female Israeli soldiers held hostage from 40 to 50 — including 30 who are serving life terms, where the Israeli offer specified 20 life-termers. And it removes a key clause in the Israel-backed proposal, under which Hamas would be allowed to choose only 20 of the security prisoners to go free in stage one, and Israel would have the right to veto those choices. Rather, it states, the Paleostinian security prisoners will be released "based on lists provided by Hamas."

The accumulated consequence of all those changes is that, in the very first days of the deal, Hamas would be able to secure the release of hundreds of the most dangerous and iconic terror chiefs and murderers, including at least 150 serving life terms, in return for the release of very few of the hostages.

The Hamas proposal also features a clause requiring the release, on the 22nd day of the deal, of "all prisoners from the Shalit deal who have been rearrested."

For Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza who was himself among the 1,027 Paleostinian security prisoners freed by Israel to secure the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, this would plainly constitute the closing of a certain circle — the freeing of the many of his colleagues who returned to terrorism after their spectacularly contentious release 13 years ago but who, unlike him, were recaptured.

Finally, in this regard, a widely reported Israeli demand for the right to veto the return of some West Bank-based Paleostinian security prisoners to the West Bank, but rather to have them instead sent to Gaza or into exile, is absent from the Hamas proposal.

Why does all this matter?

WEST BANK PRIMACY
The nightly release during November’s weeklong hostage deal of dozens of Paleostinian security prisoners prompted scenes of jubilation in the West Bank. As The Times of Israel reported at the time, "Night after night, dozens of green Hamas banners were waved in front of cameras, and freed prisoners wore them as headbands — even in the streets of Ramallah, the bastion of the Fatah-controlled Paleostinian Authority."

And the security prisoners who were being freed then were women and minors.

By contrast, under the Hamas terms now, dozens upon dozens of prisoners serving lengthy terms and life terms, murderers and mass murderers and terror chiefs — including Marwan Barghouti, the most popular of all Paleostinian security prisoners, who is serving five life terms for orchestrating deadly terror attacks during the Second Intifada, and Ahmad Saadat, serving a 30-year term for organizing the liquidation of tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001 — would be coming out of jail. And they would be returning to the West Bank.

Their release, as calculated by Sinwar, would be expected to be perceived by West Bank Paleostinians as an astounding humiliation for Israel, an indictment of the Paleostinian Authority, which had failed to set them free, and a stunning victory for Hamas.

Amid what would be regarded as a vindication of Hamas’s implacable determination to destroy Israel, and as proof of the success of its tactics and its strategy toward that goal, Sinwar would reliably expect the euphoria accompanying the return of the prisoners to cement Hamas as the peerless champion of the Paleostinian cause, fueling soaring support for Hamas in the West Bank and the unification of West Bank Paleostinians behind it, the marginalizing of the already failing PA, and the dawn of a new era of escalated violence and terrorism against Israel.

ABROGATING THE DEAL
At this early stage of the ostensible three-stage, 18-week deal, Hamas would have very little incentive to proceed with the process. It would have precious little left to extract from Israel.

And Israel, crucially, would have very little if any remaining leverage over Hamas.

It would be Hamas’s delighted pleasure to calculate how far to proceed with the deal before abrogating it — with the stated "interconnected" stages of its proposal providing it with numerous opportunities to do so. Hamas would be able to calculate the right moment to halt the hostage releases, and to do so in a way designed to fool as many people as possible into thinking that it was the Israelis who were the rejectionist guilty party — as it did successfully on Monday night when falsely claiming to have accepted a ceasefire agreement.

And Hamas would do so knowing that the US wants the war to stop and stay stopped. The Biden administration has been publicly fuming at Israel for months at the high civilian corpse count in Gaza, and is desperate to secure and maintain a ceasefire amid an election campaign and with huge tensions on and beyond university campuses. Already withholding weaponry from Israel in order to prevent the IDF from tackling Hamas in its last remaining stronghold in Rafah, deeply mistrustful of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his core far-right coalition, the administration would be immensely reluctant to provide diplomatic support and weaponry for a resumed Israeli military campaign.

IN SUMMARY
Under the terms that it has set out, therefore, Hamas expects to survive, rearm and reassert full control in Gaza, and establish primacy in the West Bank. Israel will be under attack on multiple fronts. The ambitious, improbable American vision of an Israel integrated into the region, at peace with Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...

...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat Frational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
, with a reformed PA ruling in the West Bank Gaza, will be shattered. Most of the hostages will still be held in Gaza, with no prospect of release. And Israel will be more torn and vulnerable than ever.

On Monday night, soon after the office of Hamas’s overall chief Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
 issued its ostensible acceptance of a ceasefire, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he had spoken with Haniyeh, who had assured him that "the ball is in the opposite court. We are honest in our intentions."

Indeed, the document leaves no doubt about Hamas’s intentions. You just have to read it.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Arab MK petitions court to let him visit Fatah leader and terror convict Barghouti
2024-04-22
[IsraelTimes] Ahmad Tibi demands injunction against Ben Gvir for gutting policy that let MKs exercise ’oversight’ regarding Paleostinian security prisoners’ conditions

Veteran Arab politician Ahmad Tibi on Sunday petitioned the Supreme Court
...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...
 to allow him to meet with Paleostinian security prisoners, saying National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s blanket refusal to allow such meetings is discriminatory and contravenes the principle of legislative oversight. MK Tibi, represented by legal non-profit Adalah, specifically demanded a meeting with top Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti, a highly popular Paleostinian leader and former head of Fatah’s Tanzim terrorist faction, who, in 2002, was sentenced to five life sentences for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.

According to Tibi, a policy put in place by the last Knesset allowing such meetings had been nullified by Ben Gvir at the beginning of the current one, even as members of the minister’s own Death Eater Otzma Yehudit party have been allowed to visit Jewish terror convicts.

After Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",’s shock October 7 assault, when thousands of murderous Moslems stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take over 250 hostages, Ben Gvir announced a worsening in the conditions of Paleostinian prisoners, whom the Red Thingy has not visited since October 25, according to Tibi’s petition.

"For half a year now, there has been no effective external oversight on the jailing conditions, and MK Tibi’s visit is especially important in these circumstances," read an Adalah blurb announcing the High Court petition.

"We are dealing with a case where the overseen party is preventing the overseer from overseeing him," read the petition, which, in addition to Ben Gvir, named as respondents the Knesset, the attorney general, and the acting Israel Prison Service chief.

The petition also noted that a recent request by Tibi to meet terror convict Walid Daqqa was ignored by Ben Gvir until after the inmate’s death, when the politician was told his request had been rendered "irrelevant."

It was urgent to meet Barghouti, the petition said, because of recent "reports regarding his harsh jailing conditions, including long stints of solitary confinement." Barghouti, who has himself petitioned the High Court over his conditions, was said to have told his family he was repeatedly beaten by prison guards — including to the point of losing consciousness. Barghouti’s lawyer had seen signs of violence on his client’s face, back, and legs, according to Tibi’s petition.

Barghouti, one of the prisoners whose release has reportedly been demanded by Hamas in exchange for the Israeli hostages, is widely considered a leading rival of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
. Although both belong to the secular Fatah party, Barghouti launched a slate of candidates separate from Abbas’s during the 2021 Paleostinian Authority elections, which the president ultimately canceled.

Gershon Baskin, a former negotiator for Israel with Hamas, has called for the release of Barghouti as a solution for Israel’s "day after" concerns about Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
’s governance when the war sparked by Hamas’s assault is over. According to Baskin, if Barghouti were to assume leadership of the Paleostinians, he could provide Israel with an alternative to a full occupation of Gaza and the empowerment of a local Paleostinian administration that would inevitably be branded as traitorous by its peers.
Related:
Ahmad Tibi 04-/12/2024 IDF launches ‘targeted operation’ in central Gaza’s Nuseirat after heavy bombardmentAhmad Tibi 03-/04/2024 Somali army kills 30 Al-Shabaab members in Jubaland stateAhmad Tibi 01-/15/2024 Three members of MK Ahmad Tibi’s extended family killed in Gaza bombing

Related:
Marwan Barghouti 03-/07/2024 Hamas says Israel avoiding ceasefire demands Marwan Barghouti 12-/14/2023 Poll shows soaring Palestinian support for Hamas; 72% back October 7 atrocitiesMarwan Barghouti 09-/21/2023 Amid tensions, Fatah offshoot accuses Islamist rivals of turning West Bank into Syria

Related:
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Adalah: 2024-01-04 University of Haifa suspends 8 Arab students for alleged praise of Oct. 7 massacre
Adalah: 2023-12-12 Activists calling for Gaza ceasefire protest in US Senate office building
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