Israel confirmed on Wednesday that there are "shifts" in negotiations for the hostage deal, compared to where things stood last week. This was against the backdrop of a report published yesterday by Channel 13 News that, according to sources close to Doha, a new Qatari proposal was presented to Israel and was supposed to be raised at yesterday's cabinet meeting.
According to the proposal, Hamas leaders would be exiled and all the abductees would be released, but in stages. The IDF will withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Minister Benny Gantz, chairman of the state camp and a member of the war cabinet, addressed the issue of the abductees in his statement yesterday: "The most urgent thing is the return of the abductees. This takes precedence over any move in the fighting. There's no channel you don't work on, and there's no path you don't take to make that happen."
Gantz and Netanyahu (archive), photo: Haim Tzach/GPO
Meanwhile, Israel Hayom has learned that Israel is expected to allow 400 truckloads of humanitarian aid into Gaza every day in the coming days. Israel Hayom has learned that the promise to further increase the number of trucks was given to US Secretary of State Blinken during his meetings in Israel yesterday. It should be noted that before the outbreak of the war, 800 trucks entered Gaza a day, and today there are already 200 trucks. This means that soon the number of aid trucks will be about half of what it was in normal times.
Blinken told senior Israeli officials he met with that he and the administration were under heavy pressure on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and therefore aid should be increased. He stressed that he and the administration were committed to the goal of destroying Hamas, but said that increasing the aid would make it easier for the administration to withstand the pressure.
From the special Knesset session of the lobby for the abductees, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Yisrael Beiteinu Party Chairman Avigdor Lieberman criticized: "The Israeli government's decision to increase the number of trucks carrying 'humanitarian aid' to the Gaza Strip to 400 a day is a delusional and scandalous decision that strengthens the human monsters from Hamas and provides them with breathing air. This detached decision is further proof that our leadership's ability to withstand the pressures is zero. While 'humanitarian aid' and fuel are being pumped into the Gaza Strip daily, Red Cross representatives have yet to visit our abductees despite all the promises and declarations."
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