President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed a last-minute hostage deal that would see all of the remaining Israeli hostages released in exchange for ending the war in Gaza. Hamas has yet to accept it.
The proposal was conveyed to Hamas via civilian Gershom Baskin, a civilian and columnist whose interest in Israeli-Palestinian peace led him to develop contacts that, in turn, led to a deal for hostage Gilad Shalit in 2011.
That deal has since been widely criticized, since many prominent Hamas leaders were among the more than 1,000 convicted terrorists that Israel exchanged for Shalit — including October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar.
Nevertheless, with a major Israeli offensive on Gaza City looming, and hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets of Tel Aviv demonstrating for a deal, the Trump administration has decided to give it one more try.
The Times of Israel reported Sunday:
The United States has conveyed to the Hamas terror group a new set of principles for a comprehensive deal to end the war in Gaza, the Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday.
…
According to the Kan report, the US presented Hamas with a hostage deal proposal that, while not fully fleshed out, outlines a set of principles for future negotiations.
The report said the proposal was conveyed to the terror group via Gershon Baskin, a key Israeli negotiator in the deal that led to the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity in 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian terror convicts.
Israel has said that merely releasing some hostages is not enough: all of the hostages must be released at once, and Hamas must agree to disarm. Hamas has refused the latter, hoping to rearm and return to power.
There are about 48 hostages still in Gaza, of whom at most 20 are presumed to be alive.
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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