Hamas and Israel completed the seventh exchange and only the delivery of four other bodies of hostages this week is missing to close what was agreed in the first phase of the high fire. The great unknown is to know if the two parties will sit down to negotiate … The second phase or if Benjamín Netanyahu, pressed by its ultra -nationalist government allies, will choose to return to war. The United States pressure was key for the Israelis to accept the agreement in January and will be again to move on to that second phase that contemplates the release of all hostages, but also the high the definitive fire and the withdrawal of the occupation forces . Army and intelligence services estimate that there are about 59 hostages in Gaza, of which the least 35 have died during captivity.
The Islamists released the six hostages they had announced and did so in three different places. The first to leave were Such shoham and avera megistu, the latter after a decade of captivity, and then it was the turn of Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert. In these cases, the militiamen set up stages and the usual assembly of each weekend with messages addressed to the enemy. The last hostage to be delivered to the International Red Cross was Hisham to SayedBedouino captured in 2015 when he crossed the strip on his own foot, and the delivery occurred without any ceremony.
The Israelis took 620 prisoners out of the jail on a day in which they delayed the delivery more than usual, pending security meeting headed by Netanyahu. Among those released there are 151 condemned to life imprisonment and long convictions, of which 97 will be deported abroad. The bulk of the releases are 445 prisoners of Gaza detainees after October 7, including several women and minors, according to the Palestinian responsible.
Hostage body
The exchange was made after a long night in which Hamas delivered the remains of Shiri Bibas. The Islamists announced their delivery on Thursday, but the body delivered did not correspond to that of the hostage and this caused a deep discomfort in Israel, which accused Hamas of a “flagrant violation” of the agreement and cried revenge.
The Bibas family has been the sad protagonist of the week in Israel because, in addition to Shiri, Hamas also delivered the bodies of his two children of 2 and 5 years, Kfir and Ariel. The Islamist group reported in November 2023 that they died due to a bombing, but Israel’s political and military authorities said, after knowing the forensic reports, that the captors brutally murdered the little ones “with their own hands.” The relatives issued a statement in which they expressed that “any details publication (including references to the treatment of bodies) goes against family wishes, and we ask that it be avoided (…) the family has not received such details of official sources ».
Second phase, in the air
Uncertainty is great in Gaza and important voices of Hamas confessed that they see the return to war closer than the second phase of the agreement. «Unfortunately, Netanyahu and his government have refused to participate in the second phase when there is only one week left for the end of the first. We believe that, once again, these are dirty government games to sabotage and undermine the agreement and send a message of will to return to war, ”said Bassem Naim, Islamist responsible, to the chain to Yasira.
Time is pressing, negotiation does not start and the threat of ethnic cleaning of Donald Trump is a plan for Gaza that sounds strongly among Israeli authorities. The Arab League, however, seems to be in a hurry to present a counterpart to the Trump plan and its “emergency meeting” to address the crisis in Gaza will not be held until March 4. That day the Egyptian initiative to rebuild the strip should be ready without the need to expel its two million inhabitants.
#Hamas #Israel #fulfill #phase #agreement #future #high #fire #pending #negotiation
