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Deal on Israeli captives 'now very close', Biden says

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Nov 2023 20:22
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US President Joe Biden says there is an imminent agreement regarding the Israeli captives in Palestine that could see Palestinians liberated from the occupation's prisons.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, November 21, 2023, in Washington (AP)

US President Joe Biden revealed Tuesday that there might be a deal to free the captives taken by the Palestinian Resistance during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in exchange for Palestinian prisoners jailed by the Israeli occupation.

A temporary truce is "now very close," Biden said amid talks of a deal.

"We are now very close, very close. We could bring some of these hostages home very soon. But I don’t want to get into the details of things, because nothing is done until it's done," he said at the White House. "Things are looking good at the moment."

Expectations for an exchange deal have been increasing following Qatar's statement on Sunday, indicating that only "minor" practical issues needed resolution.

The speculation intensified when the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, known for its involvement in prisoner exchanges and hostage releases, disclosed a meeting with Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar on Monday

This follows on the heels of Haniyeh's office telling AFP in a statement that the movement was "close to reaching a deal on a truce."

Even Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said, "We're very optimistic, very hopeful" and told reporters, "We are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement."

Deal could see 50-100 released

Under the deal, which the sources said could change before it materializes, between 50 and 100 Israeli settlers and foreign hostages would be released, though no military personnel would be included.

In exchange, some 300 Palestinians would be freed, including many women and minors.

Sources in the Palestinian Resistance also said some 300 trucks of food and medical aid might make it into Gaza as part of the agreement.

Quoting an Israeli political source who participated in the war cabinet session held earlier on Sunday, Israeli reporters Moriah Asraf and Doron Kadosh, on their Telegram channel Security Cabinet, wrote that "there is no closed deal yet, but it certainly seems that there is progress."

Commenting on Arab reports talking about a possible truce that was allegedly set to begin at 11 am on Monday, the Israeli source said, "This is a fake, no decision has been made."

According to Israeli sources familiar with the deal, the matter on the table, from an Israeli perspective, is a deal to "liberate dozens of Israeli women and children" held captive in the Gaza Strip. However, the Israeli reporters noted Hamas had said that it required a ceasefire in order to determine the locations of some of the captives detained by other Palestinian organizations.

The Israeli channel highlighted that "Israel tends to reach a deal despite this statement by Hamas, demanding that they locate them (the abductees who did not have them) during the ceasefires."

The ceasefire is expected to also result in the release of female and underaged Palestinian detainees held in Israeli occupation prisons in exchange for the release of dozens of women and children captives in the Gaza Strip, all of which is set to happen within the anticipated but not yet finalized 5-day ceasefire.

As for the number of days that will be included in the ceasefire, the channel claimed that "Israel" is "willing to be flexible on this issue" based on the number of captives set to be released.

All women and children must be released

Informed sources indicated that the Palestinian Resistance movement expressed its readiness to release the Israeli settlers held captive since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood while emphasizing the fact that the Israeli side is delaying the implementation of the deal to this point.

According to the sources, Hamas had stipulated the release of all Palestinian women and children in Israeli occupation prisons in exchange for the release of dozens of settlers held captives in Gaza.

The sources indicated that in order to secure the release of these Israeli captives, Hamas requested a five-day ceasefire, with the provision of a secure environment and a halt of the movement of Israeli drones over the Gaza Strip.

The Resistance also demanded that aid enter both the southern and northern parts of the Gaza Strip rather than only the South, where humanitarian aid trucks were allowed to enter in the past weeks through the Rafah Crossing.