Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Kirya in Tel Aviv./Eti Beit-On, PM
During the negotiations in Qatar in recent days, Israel agreed to release about 700 Palestinian prisoners, of which about 100 are serving life sentences, in exchange for the release of 40 hostages held by Hamas, according to two senior Israeli officials.
why is it important
This is a proposal that is very similar to the one that the Qatari mediators proposed three weeks ago, but Israel rejected it outright, Israeli officials said.
At the time, Israel claimed that it would not agree to discuss the new mediation proposal because Hamas had not yet responded to the original Paris proposal.
An Israeli official noted that despite the fact that the total number of 700 prisoners is indeed the same as in the Qatari proposal from a few weeks ago, the number of world prisoners in the American mediation proposal is lower than in the Qatari proposal from a few weeks ago.
The flexibility on the part of Israel comes after mediation presented by the US. CIA chief William Burns/Reuters
In the news center
The Israeli flexibility regarding the number of prisoners it is willing to release came after a mediation proposal presented by CIA chief Bill Burns along with the Qatari and Egyptian mediators during the talks in Doha over the weekend.
The number of prisoners that Israel is willing to release now is almost double that included in the original proposal from the Paris talks - at that time the mediators proposed the release of 400 prisoners, of which more than 25 are serving life sentences.
Senior Israeli officials stated that Israel expressed a willingness to also discuss an American mediation proposal regarding the return of Palestinian residents to the northern Gaza Strip - an issue that is one of the main points of contention in the talks.
Israel is willing to consider allowing the gradual return of more than 2,000 Palestinian residents per day to the northern Gaza Strip after the release of the abductees begins.
What next
Senior Israeli officials stated that Israel is waiting to receive Hamas' answer to the American mediation proposal and estimates that it will arrive in the next two days.
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