The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Hamas rejected a hostage deal in which its leaders would have been offered safe passage out of Gaza in return for the release of all 101 of the remaining Israeli hostages in captivity.
The Journal reported:
Israel’s top cease-fire negotiator made a new offer to Hamas members: Enjoy safe passage to another country if you lay down your arms and release the hostages.
The proposal from Israeli spy chief David Barnea, made in a meeting with Egyptian officials this past week to break the impasse, was swiftly rejected by the U.S.-designated terrorist group, Arab mediators said.
Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s top cease-fire negotiator, said the offer showed how Israel was still misreading the group and warned it could continue fighting for months, if not years, the mediators said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar offer last week, in public, after Israeli soldiers killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Upon Sinwar’s death, Israel’s security cabinet authorized negotiators to continue pursuing a hostage deal. But Hamas continues to reject such a deal — despite the destruction of its military capacities.
The Israeli public has demanded the release of hostages with increasing intensity, such that Hamas — and its Iranian patron — likely could put an early stop to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon by freeing the hostages. But still they refuse.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
