Israel to present new deal to Hamas for prisoner exchange: Report

JERUSALEM

Israel has revealed a new proposed deal for a prisoner exchange with Hamas and a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported Thursday.

The Israeli security cabinet convened to advance a new initiative for the release of hostages held in Gaza, according to Israel's Channel 13.

Israeli negotiators presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the cabinet with a fresh plan that will be presented to Hamas by mediators, it said.

The new initiative, which hasn’t been officially announced yet, reportedly demands that Hamas release over 20 Israeli captives.

The deal may not encompass the release of the 40 hostages Israel had sought in previous weeks, according to the channel.

It said the proposed deal would entail a several-week cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave during this period.

In return, the specifics of the exchange ratio, or the so-called "key" to the deal—meaning the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released for each Israeli detainee in Gaza—will be determined later.

However, the channel said that under the new initiative, Israel would not be bound to refrain from resuming hostilities at a later stage, and there would be no need for international guarantees in this regard.

The channel alleged that Egypt is gearing up to push for the deal, with an Egyptian envoy set to arrive in Israel on Friday to discuss the details. However, there has been no official statement from Cairo on the channel's report as yet.

Qatar, Egypt and the US are trying to reach a hostage swap deal and cease-fire in Gaza as the first pause in fighting lasted only a week in late November last year, which resulted in limited aid entering the Gaza Strip as well as exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and children detained in Israeli jails.

Hamas is estimated to be holding more than 130 Israeli hostages, while Tel Aviv is holding more than 9,100 Palestinians in its jails.

Hamas demands an end to Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory for any hostage-prisoner swap deal with Tel Aviv.

Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 34,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,300 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul