Israel proposes a partial withdrawal of troops from Gaza in exchange for release of hostages

In front of the cameras, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is keeping up his hard-line rhetoric, saying that Israel will see through its war against Hamas in Gaza until the end. But behind the scenes, his government continues to move discreetly to secure the release of more hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails. What until just two weeks ago seemed like a red line for Israel — the partial withdrawal of its troops — is now being discussed in the negotiations with the Islamist group. That possibility is raised in a new ceasefire offer, supported by Washington. Under the agreement, Israeli soldiers would leave the most populated areas of Gaza, allowing the entry of large-scale humanitarian aid. Hamas has rejected the proposal, saying it will only consider a definitive ceasefire.

The offer has two well-defined phases. The first phase consists of a pause in fighting, when Palestinian prisoners would be swapped for Israeli hostages. During this initial stage, Israel would withdraw from the most populated areas of Gaza to allow humanitarian aid and medical supplies — that come from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing — to enter the entire Palestinian enclave. Since aid began to enter Gaza, the United Nations and its satellite humanitarian organizations in Gaza have repeatedly complained that the omnipresence of the Israeli military is a big obstacle for its distribution. In that first phase, the exchange would affect only the most vulnerable hostages and prisoners, Israel’s Channel 13 News reported on Wednesday.

The plan would also have a second phase that would involve exchanging women, soldiers and corpses. If the agreement went ahead, Israel would agree to relocate its defense forces to other areas of the territory. The United States, which supports the offer, has been pressuring Israel to move to a third phase of the war. This stage would involve Israel stopping its large-scale attacks by land, sea, and air and opting instead for more surgical special forces operations that minimize or stop altogether the rising death toll of Palestinians. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which Hamas controls, 21,320 people have been killed in Gaza, of whom 70% are civilians. And the death toll continues to rise at an exponential rate.

Hamas, however, has so far rejected the proposal as it did with the ceasefire plan put forward by Egypt, one of the intermediaries between the Islamist group and the Israeli government, on Sunday. The spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, Abu Obeida, said that the group’s objective is to “stop the aggression.” “There are no exchange deals or other proposals that we can accept before the aggression against our people is completely stopped,” he said in an audio broadcast by the Qatari network Al Jazeera.

The Egyptian proposal only involved a temporary ceasefire, and also called on Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions to agree on the establishment of a government of experts that would focus on rebuilding Gaza, and agree on a roadmap to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in both Gaza and the West Bank. The plan was welcomed by Israel, which thought it was a good starting point and appreciated the fact that Qatar was no longer the sole intermediary putting forward proposals. Despite the opposition of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad (which is also keeping Israeli hostages), Egypt said that it is still waiting for a response from both parties and that its objective “is to bring their points of view closer” to end the war and restore stability in the region.

In the zero-sum game that is the war in Gaza, Israel has been taking steps towards reaching a new agreement, while Hamas is increasingly reluctant. It is demanding a definitive ceasefire and the total withdrawal of Israeli military from Gaza as conditions to start talks. In public, Netanyahu claims that military pressure is the only way to get the hostages released. But in reality, the Israeli prime minister is under a lot of pressure from the Bring Them Home Now movement formed by the families of the hostages. This group is demanding an immediate agreement, particularly since the Israeli army mistakenly killed three hostages and the bodies of five more were recovered. On Thursday, after meeting with members, Netanyahu said: “We are in contact now. We cannot detail the situation. We are working to bring them home. That is our goal.” Hamas leaders are aware of the building pressure, and are using it as leverage.

Netanyahu’s tough public discourse against Hamas is greatly influenced by the wide social support for the military campaign. According to a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, released on December 19, 81% of Israelis of Jewish descent believe that their country should not take into account the suffering of the Palestinian population of Gaza when planning its military operations. Among the Arab-Israeli population — which accounts for around 20% of the total — the feeling is the opposite: 83% believe that the government should take into account ways to minimize the harm to Gazan civilians. Under these conditions, it’s no surprise that the prime minister is publicly insisting on the need to maintain the campaign until it achieves its objectives.

What’s more, the internal cohesion of his government coalition is at stake. As Yedioth Ahronoth columnist Sima Kadmon wrote last Monday, “Netanyahu would like the hostages to be released, but not at any price. Not at the price of stopping the war, which would bring about events that the prime minister does not want to happen: [Benny] Gantz and [Gadi] Eisenkot [both war cabinet ministers for the right-wing National Unity Party and former military officials] would leave the government, and the prime minister would suffer enormous criticism from the extreme right, which could also trigger the departure of [Itamar] Ben Gvir [interior minister and ultra leader].” According to the Israel Democracy Institute survey, two-thirds of Israelis (69%) want elections to be called as soon as the war is over, a position also held by most right-wing voters.

“Unlawful killings”

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli attacks continue. At least 200 people died on Thursday in Rafah — a city on the south border with Egypt, where tens of thousands of people have been sleeping rough for weeks — and in towns in the center of Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Minister. Violence also reached several towns in the West Bank Thursday night, with Israeli soldiers searching for militants from Islamist organizations. The military raids ended Friday morning with the death of two Palestinians: one in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the West Bank, and another in the outskirts of Bethlehem.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called on Israel to “end the unlawful killings” of Palestinian citizens and “settler violence” in the West Bank, warning that the human right situation in the Palestinian territory has been rapidly deteriorating since the Hamas attacks on October 7. In a statement, the Austrian diplomat said: “The use of military tactics means and weapons in law enforcement contexts, the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force, and the enforcement of broad, arbitrary and discriminatory movement restrictions that affect Palestinians are extremely troubling.”

On the other hand, Israel gave its preliminary permission on Thursday for a maritime humanitarian corridor to be created between Cyprus and Gaza. There are, however, still details to negotiate before the project is launched, as announced by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Cyprus made the proposal weeks ago in a bid to help increase the amount of aid entering Gaza. Currently, supplies only enter through the border crossings at Rafah (with Egypt) and Kerem Shalom (with Israel).

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