Hostages freed in first deal
Hostages freed in first dealFlash 90

Sources with knowledge of the details said that Israel has demanded that “heavy” terrorist prisoners who would be released as part of the upcoming hostage release deal be expelled abroad, rather than be transferred to Judea and Samaria, Kan 11 News reported on Friday evening.

According to the report, Israel has clarified that this demand stemmed from the desire to avoid the images of celebrations of terrorist releases that were seen in the previous hostage deal about a year ago, and also to distance the freed prisoners from the possibility of returning to terrorist activity.

However, some Israeli officials criticized this demand, saying that senior terrorist prisoners could still engage in terrorism even while abroad, and could even direct operations. Those officials cited the example of Saleh al-Arouri, who was exiled to Turkey and directed Hamas activities in Judea and Samaria until he was eliminated in a UAV strike on a building in Beirut.

Meanwhile, Kan 11 reported, a source involved in the negotiations on a hostage release deal said, "The talks are progressing in the right direction," despite the fact that CIA Director William Burns left Qatar.

According to the source, this action does not necessarily mean that the negotiations have stalled.

Israeli officials involved in the negotiations said that the talks are in their final days. The direction is positive, the officials noted, but anything can still happen. They added that the negotiations cannot continue forever, and within a week, it will be clearer where things are headed.

Hamas sources on Thursday morning told Al-Akhbar newspaper that the negotiations are going "excellently," and expressed hope that in the near future "we will have an agreement."

However, they added that there are still two issues on which agreements have not yet been reached.

The first is Israel's demand to receive a list of living and dead hostages. According to the terror groups, there must be at least one week of no fighting in order for the terrorists to reach all of the hostages and evaluate their conditions.

Another issue is that according to sources in Hamas, there are not yet agreements regarding Israel's demand to include kidnapped soldiers who fit "humanitarian" criteria in the first stage of the deal, such that an injured soldier would be released in the first stage.

Hamas is claiming that they oppose this demand, stating that it is in contradiction to what has already been agreed upon regarding the ratio of convicted terrorists to be released in exchange for each hostage.

On Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz stated during a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel is "closer than ever" to a deal with Hamas.

Katz noted that the deal will be carried out in stages and added, "The Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor will not be an obstacle to implementing a deal. There is flexibility from the other side on these issues."

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)