Senior Israeli officials were debating whether the apparent refusal of the Hamas in Gaza, to consider a deal for a week long truce and prisoner release in exchange for freeing Israeli hostages, is the terror group's final decision or whether it is a negotiation tactic and a deal could still be reached.
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Officials in the Mossad do not believe a deal remains unattainable and say Qatar and Egypt should be given time to advance negotiations. They base their optimism on the arrival in Cairo of Hamas leaders from their base in Qatar, indicating talks were ongoing.
A senior official said Israel had made clear that a new deal was timely and that in the previous agreement Hamas fulfilled its commitments in all but the final day. "When the agreement was violated, we returned to fighting. Now as we have said. we are willing to pick up where we left off the last time. We must start with the women and children but not end there. Our aim is to release all the hostages as quickly as possible," he said.
The official said Israel understood that if a deal is struck it would mean a humanitarian pause in the fighting that is time needed to gather the hostages and arrange their release but insisted that the objective to eliminate Hamas was unchanged.
"That is our commitment in the wake of the atrocities and because Hamas said it would repeat them and the terror group's desire has not changed. I don't understand why the world does not support our aims to end such atrocities," the official said adding that Hamas must not be allowed to exist, no matter what form it takes.
The London based Asharq al Aswad news paper quoted sources on Thursday that said the talks to exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners were still taking place and a deal could be reached although the differences between the positions are still great, as are the demands. In its report the paper said Egypt is applying pressure to bring about an agreement as evidenced in the visit of leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Cairo.
The Qatari government was also continuing its efforts although a source involved in the negotiations said it would take time to bring both sides to accept the terms necessary. The source believed Hamas would agree to remove its demand for a permanent cessation of fighting if the price was right.
The Israeli source said efforts to avert war between Israel and Hezbollah in the north have not yielded results thus far. "We are aware of the efforts made by the U.S. and France and believe that there could be an agreement to move Hezbollah forces away from the border with Israel but as in Gaza, Israel is not the aggressor. We've come under attack from Hezbollah since the second day of the war and are under fire from them on a daily basis."
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Aftermath of an Israeli strike on S. Lebanon after rocket fire to northern Israel
(Photo: AFP)
He said that if diplomacy fails, Israel would have no option but to take steps to ensure safety in its north so that the residents who evacuated from the border area could return home safely.