Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir reportedly urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a hostage deal that he said was “on the table” during a visit to a military base in the port city of Haifa.
The report, by Israel’s Channel 13, said (translated by Breitbart News and Google Translate):
Against the backdrop of preparations for the occupation of Gaza and negotiations for a [hostage and ceasefire] deal, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir conveyed a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Sunday) during a visit to the naval base in Haifa: “There is a deal on the table, we have to take it now.” Zamir also said that “the IDF has brought about the conditions for the deal, now it is in Netanyahu’s hands.”
In parallel with the IDF’s preparations to occupy Gaza City, after tens of thousands of reserve orders have been issued, and before the operation begins [next week], the Chief of Staff is calling on the Prime Minister to accept the deal. From Zamir’s perspective, the IDF can occupy Gaza, but the operation could endanger the hostages. Hamas terrorists could murder them or even commit suicide with them if they feel that the IDF is getting too close to them.
The message that Zamir conveyed to Netanyahu is: “There is a deal on the table, it is the improved Witkoff outline. It must be taken. The IDF brought the conditions for the hostage deal, now it is in Netanyahu’s hands. There is a great risk to the lives of the hostages in the occupation of Gaza City.”
As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, Hamas appeared to accept a version of a deal it rejected in May, after it was proposed by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. The deal proposes a two-stage process in which some of the hostages would be released in exchange for Israeli releases of Palestinian terrorists and withdrawal from Gaza by the IDF; and the rest of the hostages would be released in a final end to the conflict.
Netanyahu has not formally responded to the apparent about-face by Hamas, which came after the IDF began preparing to invade the final Hamas strongholds in Gaza City. Israel has said it is no longer willing to accept a multi-stage process, but wants all of the hostages to be released at once. Netanyahu has also said that he intends to destroy Hamas and occupy Gaza regardless of any deal, though that may ultimately be negotiable.
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 Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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