Netanyahu stands firm: No hostage deal before US talks

Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored the pleas of the hostages' families, who demanded an immediate announcement of a hostage deal from Ben Gurion Airport before his departure to Washington on the "Wing of Zion" plane.

The families, who had waited five hours after Netanyahu's meeting with the negotiating delegation and heads of security agencies on Sunday evening, woke up on Monday to media leaks confirming that there had been no fundamental change in the Israeli Prime Minister's position. 

His decision to allow the negotiating delegation to travel to Doha again was merely a way "to buy time" until his US talks concluded.

It is no coincidence that Netanyahu chose Thursday as the date for the delegation’s travel. 

Netanyahu wants to leverage his meetings at the White House to secure American support for his new demands and to gain backing from mediators to pressure Hamas into accepting them. 

During five hours of discussions with security officials, Netanyahu remained firm on a set of demands.

The demands state that there will be no possibility of returning thousands of militants to northern Gaza, along with ensuring supervision to prevent the transfer of weapons from southern to northern Gaza. 

Multiple sources familiar with the negotiations confirmed that this condition was not included in the original text of the agreement.

The demands also include increasing the number of living captives included in the first humanitarian phase of the deal, Israel maintaining some form of monitoring and control over the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between Egypt and Gaza, and controlling the Rafah crossing to prevent arms smuggling to Hamas from Egypt.

Sources familiar with the negotiations warned that these conditions could hinder progress in the deal, however, the question remains whether Netanyahu will succeed in convincing the Americans of the necessity to support his demands. 

The Prime Minister will address Congress on Wednesday, seeking to win over both Democrats and Republicans by leveraging the hostage deal file and highlighting the presence of former prisoners, current prisoners' families, and soldiers killed in Gaza.