Jeremy Scahill
Drop Site News / February 19, 2025
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his effort to sabotage the deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and exchange of captives, Hamas has begun putting out substantive public proposals of its own. On Tuesday, Hamas’s Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, said the group was prepared to negotiate a comprehensive deal for Phase 2 that would include the return of all Israeli captives held in Gaza “as one package,” rather than the staggered weekly releases that have marked Phase 1 of the deal. In return, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups would require Israel to completely withdraw all of its forces from the Gaza Strip and for international mediators, including the U.S., to certify a permanent truce.
“Hamas and the resistance have demonstrated their seriousness in implementing the agreement with full responsibility, while [the] Israeli occupation and Netanyahu’s government respond with procrastination and attempts to evade its implementation,” Al-Hayya said. Israel has largely continued to block the delivery of heavy equipment, mobile homes, and other aid agreed to under the terms of the ceasefire. It has also killed more than 130 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect on January 19. Among these are two Palestinians shot and killed in front of a UN school on Tuesday in Rafah, according to the city’s mayor.
Hamas also announced it would release all six living Israeli captives slated for exchange in Phase 1 on Saturday, saying it was evidence of the group’s flexibility and willingness to reach a viable deal. It also appears to be a concession to President Donald Trump’s demand that all Israeli hostages be released at once. Hamas also said that on Thursday it would be returning the bodies of four Israeli captives.
Among these are Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, who were taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7 and brought to Gaza. In November 2023, the Qassam Brigades announced the three of them had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. While major media reporting on this story consistently identifies Hamas as the party that took the Bibas family, a different armed faction actually claimed responsibility. The Mujahideen Brigades, which started as an offshoot of the ruling Fatah Party’s armed wing, released a statement on Wednesday affirming they would return their bodies to Israel and said “they were bombed by the Zionist occupation missiles and were killed, along with the captor group” in November 2023.
As a result of Hamas’s proposals, Israel has reportedly agreed to begin letting in more heavy equipment to clear rubble as well as a limited number of mobile homes and more tents. Israel is also supposed to release approximately 200 women and children it snatched from Gaza since October 7. In total, some 445 Palestinians from Gaza taken prisoner by Israel are slated to be freed Saturday, along with more than 110 Palestinians who are serving life sentences or lengthy prison terms. Additionally, 47 Palestinians who were “re-arrested” after being freed in the 2011 deal for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit are also scheduled to be released.
Netanyahu recently placed his longtime confidant and strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer in charge of the negotiations on Phase 2 of the ceasefire deal, replacing the head of Shin Bet. Netanyahu told cabinet ministers during a recent meeting that Israel’s position on continuing the ceasefire will require Hamas to disarm and have no presence in Gaza. While Hamas has said that it does not want to govern Gaza and would accept a national unity committee, it has dismissed suggestions the movement would disband or disarm as fantasy.
Jeremy Scahill – journalist at Drop Site News, author of the books Blackwater and Dirty Wars
