Hostage Deal Close Again After Hamas Concedes On Israeli Troops In Gaza

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is currently on his seventh trop to Israel, and with just weeks left of the Biden administration. The lame-duck US administration is still trying to inject something positive into the news cycle concerning efforts to achieve a hostage and ceasefire deal in war-ravaged Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is ready to do a deal” – claimed Sullivan in a Tel Aviv press conference. He was asked about longtime allegations that Netanyahu has actually been stalling and thwarting the potential for a deal.

“No, I do not get that sense,” Sullivan answered. “When I go to Doha in Cairo, my goal will be to put us in a position to be able to close this deal this month… I wouldn’t be here today if I thought this thing was just waiting until after January 20,” he also explained.

“Hezbollah can never again rebuild its terror infrastructure to threaten Israel,” said Sullivan, appearing to take some degree of credit on behalf of the Biden administration. “Now the Assad regime in Syria is gone.”

“The balance of power in the Middle East has changed significantly,” Sullivan declared further. “Israel is stronger, Iran is weaker.”

But as for the potential to secure peace in Gaza, this looks further away just as it’s been for the past many months, despite occasional optimistic sounding headlines to the contrary. The Wall Street Journal in a fresh report has said Hamas has begun conceding to a couple key Israeli demands:

Hamas has yielded to two of Israel’s key demands for a cease-fire deal in Gaza, Arab mediators said, raising hopes of an agreement that could release some hostages within days despite the repeated collapse of previous negotiations.

The militant group told mediators for the first time that it would agree to a deal that would allow Israeli forces to remain in Gaza temporarily when the fighting stops. Hamas also handed over a list of hostages, including U.S. citizens, whom it would release under a cease-fire pact, something it hasn’t done since the first truce in the conflict last year.

The new plan, proposed by Cairo and backed by the U.S., seeks to build on momentum generated by the cease-fire in Lebanon secured in November, which has broadly held despite both Israel and Hezbollah accusing each other of violations. 

So this could actually be a legitimate breakthrough, in the wake of Hamas’ leadership having been decimated (as has Hezbollah’s). Still, in the recent past when the US was claiming to be at the ‘goal line’ of achieving a deal, either side would demand something more, or refuse to make key concessions.

Israeli Defense Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin in 2007: “Israel would be happy if Hamas took over Gaza because IDF could then deal with Gaza as a hostile state”, going on to downplay significance of Iran in Gaza “as long as they don’t have a port.”https://t.co/BK696GcVP0 pic.twitter.com/1kAjY6rfTM

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 31, 2024

Hamas has until now (apparently) stuck firmly to its demand of a full military withdrawal from the Strip, thus this could actually be the real opening that the sides need. But it remains to be seen whether this will be enough for Netanyahu.