Hebrew media: Netanyahu struggling to maintain his position.
In a report published on the media outlet’s website, the Israeli Channel 12 TV emphasized that after several prisoner exchanges, it has been more than five months since any prisoners have been released, except for Aidan Alexander, whom Hamas released voluntarily as a gesture of goodwill toward the Americans. There is no news of any prisoners being released.
The media outlet wrote that a month ago, the situation had reached a point where everyone thought that we were repeating the previous situation, that another agreement was being formed between Israel and Hamas, and that Benjamin Netanyahu had traveled to Washington to significantly increase the hope of the families of the prisoners. Netanyahu even announced in a meeting with the families of the prisoners: “We are on the right track and will return your children to you, but nothing happened.”
The hypothesis being promoted in the media is that Hamas has sabotaged this process and has done so in the light of the international media’s attention to the famine in Gaza, while Israel is grappling with a major political tsunami, and the number of countries that want the formation of a Palestinian state is increasing every day.
According to the Hebrew-language media outlet, the narrative is that Hamas agreed to release a larger number of Palestinian prisoners than the mediators had proposed, and opposed the Israeli military presence deep inside Gaza, while insisting on the return of humanitarian aid distribution according to the old mechanism.
However, sources and elements deep inside the Israeli structure loudly emphasize that these issues and demands can never lead to the collapse of an agreement. If 500 trucks enter Gaza through the old mechanism and only 100 of them reach aid centers, and even if all of these trucks reach Hamas through the old mechanism, will this lead to the collapse of an agreement? This will not happen. There is also little difference for the Israeli army between being 800 meters deep in Gaza or 1,200 meters from the border. These are trivial and even ridiculous issues when it comes to the lives and deaths of people and saving people from hell.
A high-ranking source familiar with the ongoing negotiations emphasizes: Yes, it is true that Hamas has posed challenges, but Israel should not have cut off these contacts. Even if it had called the delegation to Tel Aviv for some consultations, the delegation should have returned to Qatar and sought a way to reach an agreement in any way possible.
Cutting off contacts and negotiations was the worst thing that could have been done. If the negotiators do not understand this, they have not understood the most trivial principles of negotiating management.
In negotiations, there is the possibility of arguments, verbal clashes, anger, and even temporary suspension of contacts, but these issues should not become irreparable.
According to this media outlet, on the one hand, Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to appease Smotrich and the right-wing movement for settlement construction in the Gaza Strip, and on the other hand, there is Dermer’s theory that emphasizes that the Hamas problem must be solved first (Hamas must be destroyed), even if this means the loss of prisoners, an approach that had not entered Israeli discourse and statements until at least a few weeks ago.