Intricate negotiations for Gaza's prisoner swap deal

Sources told Al-Akhbar that the American mediation, which is being worked on by the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, and the US presidential envoy, Amos Hochstein, to release Israeli civilians and foreign prisoners from the Gaza Strip, is divided into three parts: A temporary ceasefire for 3 to 5 days, prisoner swap and humanitarian aid.

This article was initially published in, translated from the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

In the section related to the swap of prisoners, an agreement is made to release living Israeli civilian prisoners, including women, children, and teenagers, who are held by the “Al-Qassam Brigades” and the “Al-Quds Brigades” (without specifying additional details about the number and age), in addition to foreign prisoners, in exchange for The Israeli occupation to release about 140 Palestinian boys or young men who were arrested “based on unarmed activity.” 

Moreover, the swap includes the release of about 35 or 36 Israeli female prisoners held by the Palestinian factions in Gaza in exchange for the release of all Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli prisons.

As for humanitarian aid, negotiations revolve around the entrance of 7,000 aid and fuel trucks to all areas of Gaza, restarting hospitals, and introducing new ambulances into the Strip.

Regarding the implementation mechanism, the discussion revolves around Israel stopping military operations, except for reconnaissance air sorties. Still, the Hamas movement says that the air sorties will be an obstacle that prevents facilitating the process of implementing the deal.
 
On the other hand, Israel demands that the deal begin with Hamas releasing its prisoners, while the movement confirms that this step will not be done all at once.

The information indicates many details that are being investigated, such as the presence of a large number of bodies under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel in Gaza. Therefore, there is no way to hand over any of the prisoners before removing the rubble and verifying the bodies, especially since several Israeli prisoners were killed in the Israeli bombing of Gaza. .

Additionally, sources told Al-Akhbar that the Israeli side tried to be clever by saying that everyone who was captured by Hamas and was not in active service was a civilian and not a soldier, which was rejected by Hamas, stressing that the soldiers, whether men or women, will remain in captivity regardless of whether they were captured while on or off active duty.

According to the sources, there is another clause related to what Israel considers the right of the Red Cross to visit the rest of the prisoners not included in the deal, but Hamas rejects this matter.