There are still about 135 hostages who have been held by Hamas in Gaza for roughly nine weeks. A well-known Israeli hostage negotiator believes time is running out for the Israeli government to secure their release.
Gershon Baskin believes Israel should make an offer to Hamas — which would go through intermediaries, including Qatar, Egypt, and the United States — to secure the release of the remaining hostages that is too enticing for Hamas to pass up. Israel, he suggested, should consider a deal that would offer all Palestinians in Israeli jails, thousands of people, in exchange for all of the remaining hostages, though if they aren’t ready for such a deal, Baskin suggested “something like 3,000 prisoners.”
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If such an offer were made, Israel could publish “the names of all the prisoners that Israel’s willing to release,” which would, in turn, “put the pressure on the Palestinian side” to accept the deal, he said during an interview with the Washington Examiner.
More than 100 hostages were released during a weeklong ceasefire in late November in exchange for the release of three times as many Palestinians who were being held in Israeli prisons, but negotiations have fallen apart regarding securing the release of the remaining hostages. The initial agreement only called on Hamas to release the women and children.
“The clock is ticking on the possibility for a deal because the military operation is moving forward and moving faster,” he said.
The hostage situation — which began on Oct. 7, when Hamas and other terrorist groups kidnapped about 240 people, many of whom were women and children — presents a “completely different” set of circumstances than prisoner swaps the two sides engaged in before the war, according to Baskin.
In 2011, the Israelis, led by Baskin, agreed to release 1,027 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons in exchange for one Israel Defense Forces soldier named Gilad Shalit, who had been held in Gaza for five years when the deal was agreed upon and executed. Baskin said Hamas initially requested 1,500 prisoners in the deal, though the Egyptian government offered a proposal from Hamas that called for the release of 1,000 prisoners.
One of the prisoners released in the swap was Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader whom Israeli officials said was the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
“It’s never been the kind of situation like it is today — whether it was Gilad Shalit, or the bodies of two soldiers, or two civilians who’ve been in Gaza since 2014,” he said, referencing other swaps. “The situation today is completely different. The only similarity I would say is that Hamas puts down a position, and it sticks to that position. It doesn’t change. … Another similarity is that they are the more active side in negotiations. Israel is very passive. Basically receiving offers from us through the mediator and either rejecting them or accepting them.”
Baskin does not expect there to be another negotiated agreement to free the hostages, though he noted there can be “very little rationality and strategic thinking” involved in these negotiations and that an “opportunity may suddenly appear.”
The well-being of the hostages remains unknown, while freed hostages have reported little food and being held in the massive tunnel infrastructure utilized by Hamas. Some reported having been drugged or beaten. The families of the remaining hostages have continued to urge the Israeli government to pursue another agreement to bring their loved ones home, while the loved ones of the Americans who are being held met with President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
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“It was a terrific conversation,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a hostage’s family member, said following the meeting. “We all came away feeling that as families of American Israeli hostages, which are eight out of a total of 138 hostages, we felt reinforced in believing that we could have no better friend in Washington or the White House than President Biden.”
“We’d love a Christmas miracle,” Liz Naftali said. “We know they are working 24 hours a day.”
