Gaza Deal Underway Including Preliminary Prisoner Exchange – BREAKING

November 2, 2023

Al-Qassam Brigades released a video showing three Israelis currently held in Gaza. (Photo: video grab)

An informed source close to the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas revealed to Al-Jazeera Net that a preliminary prisoner exchange deal between the movement and the Israeli occupation is imminent.

According to the source, international and regional parties are contributing to the completion of the deal, whose proposed terms include the movement’s release of children, the elderly, and foreigners in exchange for the release of all women and children prisoners in Israeli prisons.

According to the same source, the provisions also stipulate the entry of sufficient quantities of humanitarian aid and relief materials into the Gaza Strip.

The source reported that the Israeli occupation was very strict regarding the issue of the entry of fuel, while the movement insisted on its introduction. It was finally agreed that sufficient quantities intended for hospitals should be allowed to enter the besieged Strip.

In order to implement the terms of this deal, Israel demanded the provision of sufficient data on the prisoners and hostages held by the movement, while Hamas demanded a ceasefire for a period of up to a week to allow the collection of the required data on the prisoners. 

The head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, announced a few days ago the movement’s readiness to immediately implement an exchange deal for all prisoners in Israeli prisons in exchange for prisoners held by the Resistance.

Sinwar called on bodies and institutions working in the field of prisoners to consider themselves in a state of permanent convening and to prepare lists of the names of prisoners held by the Israeli occupation without exception.

On the Israeli side, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated that he discussed in the Israeli ‘War Council’ a proposal to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of prisoners in the Strip, stressing that the expansion of the ground operation does not contradict the idea of freeing prisoners from the Al-Qassam Brigades. 

The Brigades previously announced that it had captured more than 200 Israelis during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in the Gaza Strip.

On the other hand, Israel detains about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, including dozens who have spent more than 20 years in Israeli detention, and more than a thousand detainees held under administrative detention without trial or formal indictment.

(AJA, PC)