2023-11-22 09:38:35
The Israeli government approved this Wednesday, November 22, the agreement providing for the release of 50 hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a four-day truce in the Gaza Strip.
Hostages released, humanitarian truce… What we know about the agreement between Israel and Hamas
To get there, it took five weeks of negotiations “terribly trying” according to a senior U.S. official who described the process in a press interview Tuesday evening.
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• Creation of a mediation “cell”
Very quickly after the bloody and unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, Qatar, according to this senior official who did not wish to be named, offered to mediate for a possible release of the hostages taken into the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Islamist group – around 240 people.
A « cells » is then established for “work very carefully, very discreetly”. The Biden administration is represented by two senior White House officials, Brett McGurk and Josh Geltzer.
“Only the international community can save our hostages”: in Tel Aviv, relatives of Hamas prisoners are mobilizing
What followed, for weeks, were “daily contacts, sometimes hour by hour”, between Americans, Israelis, Qataris and Egyptians.
Egypt, which holds the only opening to the world in the Gaza Strip which is not in the hands of Israel, the Rafah crossing, is a historic and essential mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Qatar, for its part, welcomes the exiled leader of Hamas, but also maintains good relations with Washington.
• A first release on October 20
A first important step was taken on October 20 with the release of two American women detained by Hamas, “a life-size test”reported the senior American official, indicating that the White House had, that day, followed their path to freedom ” in real time “.
Their release “gave us confidence” in the procedure then established, confirming the key role of Qatar.
• Sometimes laborious discussions
The head of the Israeli Mossad, David Barnea, and the head of the American CIA, Bill Burns, joined the restricted circle of discussions at this time.
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American President Joe Biden is holding more meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Attack on Israel: the ambiguous role of Qatar, financier of Hamas, which dreams of itself as a “great regional negotiator”
The discussions, “very detailed and technical”quickly stumble over a crucial question: the identification by Hamas of the hostages it could free.
Communications are “difficult” and laborious, “messages must go through Doha and Cairo to the Gaza Strip, and come back the other way”still according to the same source.
• A start of agreement then a blockage in mid-November
At the end of October-beginning of November, the agreement “beginning to take shape”. There is already talk of releasing 50 people, but Hamas, according to the senior American official, only provides a list of 10 names.
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On November 12, Joe Biden picked up his phone and informed the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, that we must go further.
Hamas, again according to this senior White House official, ended up producing 50 names of women and children, with identification criteria.
“Bring back our children”: in Israel, with the relatives of Hamas hostages
On November 14, Israel gave the first green light. That day, “we were getting close to the conclusion when suddenly everything got stuck”, Hamas ceasing to respond, the source continues. She assures that once contact is re-established, the Palestinian Islamist group, on several occasions, “interrupts discussions”.
• A 5 to 6 page plan for the agreement reached this Wednesday
On November 17, the American president is in San Francisco (California) for a summit with countries around the Pacific rim. New phone call, this time to agree with the Emir of Qatar that it is time to “seal” the agreement.
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On November 18, the American envoy Brett McGurk, joined by the head of the CIA by teleconference, participated in a decisive meeting in Doha, leading to a plan in “five to six pages”which details the release process so that “nothing is left to chance”.
The next day, during an interview with the head of the Egyptian intelligence services Abbas Kamel, a response from Hamas made it possible to resolve certain outstanding points. SO, ” for the first time “Americans “see the agreement take shape”. Tuesday evening (US time), Joe Biden finally said, in a press release, “extraordinarily satisfied” of the upcoming release of the hostages.
Fifty hostages held by Hamas will be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a four-day truce, Israel and the Islamist group announced overnight.
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