Israel passes ball of prisoner exchange deal back to Hamas
On the back of the coronavirus crisis, Israel is now examining a three-phased plan proposed indirectly by Hamas for the exchange of prisoners.
An unusual statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on April 7 said that Coordinator for Captives and Missing Persons Yaron Blum and his team are “committed to acting constructively with the aim of bringing back the soldiers’ bodies and missing civilians and putting an end to the issue," adding that the premier was calling “for immediate dialogue between mediators” to facilitate a deal with Hamas.
What made this statement so extraordinary is that it was issued so publicly. In most cases, calls for talks of this sort are made clandestinely, through middlemen. This was not just intended to save time, even if Egypt, which normally acts as mediator, is busy dealing with its own coronavirus crisis. It was also intended to send a direct message to a different target audience.
The unusual Israeli statement was apparently instigated by an April 2 announcement made by Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar who spoke on the digital platform of Hamas TV. Addressing Defense Minister Naftali Bennett directly, Sinwar threatened military escalation, if there are not enough ventilators for coronavirus patients in the Gaza Strip. But Sinwar also added, "We are ready to make partial concessions on our prisoners' issue in exchange for the Israeli release of elderly prisoners, patients and prisoners as a humanitarian gesture in light of the coronavirus crisis."
Israel knows that Sinwar wants to send a message to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails that his movement has not forgotten them and that it will not forsake them, especially now, during the pandemic. That is why Hamas has signaled it is eager to conduct these negotiations openly and publicly.
