Israel revealed a new offer Tuesday in the elusive search for a hostage deal: it will allow Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to leave Gaza safely if he agrees to release all of the remaining Israeli hostages.
The offer was revealed to Bloomberg News in an interview with Gal Hirsch, the Israeli official in charge of hostage negotiations:
Israel proposed giving Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage out of Gaza in exchange for the group freeing the hostages it holds and giving up control of the strip, a senior official said, even as doubts deepen about the two sides’ ability to reach any cease-fire accord.
“I’m ready to provide safe passage to Sinwar, his family, whoever wants to join him,” Israel hostage envoy Gal Hirsch said in an interview Tuesday in the Bloomberg News Washington bureau. “We want the hostages back. We want demilitarization, de-radicalization of course — a new system that will manage Gaza.”
Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 terror attack in which Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis, became the leader of Hamas last month after the killing of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran.
Israel had previously said that all Hamas leaders who participated in the October 7 attack would be killed. The offer represents a significant exception.
This author has said for months that an offer that allows Hamas leaders to live in exchange for the hostages is the only possible offer, though it presupposes that Hamas leaders feel the Israeli military is an imminent threat to them.
