According to the report yesterday (Monday) on the American NBC network, senior government officials are discussing the option of releasing hostages unilaterally.
According to them, Israel will not take part in these talks and they will be carried out through the Qatari mediators. So far the White House has not responded to the report.
The deal in question is indeed one-sided, but Hamas will be able to gain quite a bit from it. The assumption is that after the return of the American abductees, the US will lose interest in repatriating the rest of the Israeli abductees. This will damage US-Israel relations, and as a result, Israel will be left alone. Of course, this is just an opinion, but it should be taken into account.
The government estimates that Hamas is holding five hostages with American citizenship – Idan Alexander, Sagi Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Pollin, Omer Nautra and Keith Siegel. In addition, according to estimates, there are also three bodies of Americans who were murdered on the seventh of October and taken to Gaza.
As mentioned, it is not clear what the US will give to Hamas in the deal, but it is clear that Hamas has incentives. According to estimates, such a deal could lower the interest of the Americans in Israeli negotiations, and damage the Netanyahu-Biden relationship.
One of the former senior officials in the administration claimed that in such a report there was pressure on Netanyahu to accept a deal proposal from a certain version. Also, according to the report, this deal will only be implemented if a deal from Israel is not implemented.
The kidnapping rescue operation that happened last Saturday may also affect a deal. On Netanyahu’s part, this will be a reinforcement of the guideline that only military pressure will lead to the release of abductees. On the other hand, from the Hamas side, Operation Arnon resulted in the death of many Palestinians, and this will result in an increase in the price of a deal.
At the same time, a senior member of the Biden administration stated that the responsibility for the death of the Palestinians rests solely with Hamas. The terrorist organization is the one who hides the abductees in a civilian environment and is responsible for any harm to them. Despite this and despite the success of the operation, the negotiations that led to the release of the other abductees must continue.
