Hostage deal hurdles: Egyptian sources say Israeli term slowing deal - report

Despite reports indicating that Israel and Hamas are moving toward a Gaza hostage-ceasefire agreement, Israeli terms have complicated the agreement, Egyptian sources told the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese news outlet Al-Akhbar on Saturday. 

The Philadelphi Corridor has reportedly remained a hurdle as Israel continues to pursue maintaining control of the area as a critical component of preventing Hamas’s future rearmament. 

Additionally, as was a point of contention in previous discussions, Israel has reportedly rejected the possibility that Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti be released as part of a prisoner-for-hostage exchange. 

In August, Hamas demanded Barghouti's release as part of a prospective deal. The call for the Fatah leader's freedom was allegedly connected to Hamas's concerns that it would not be able to maintain power over the Gaza Strip and Barghouti would be a way to maintain a position of influence. 

In May, Maariv, citing the Saudi Asharq, reported that Israel no longer opposed Barghouti's release but had insisted he be released into Gaza instead of the West Bank.

Barghouti, former leader of the Tanzim, an armed faction of the Palestinian Fatah movement, was sentenced in 2004 by an Israeli court to five cumulative life sentences and 40 years in prison for terrorist acts in which five Israelis were murdered and many others were wounded.

The informed official claimed that, in addition to refusing demands for Barghouti’s release, Israel insisted that the prisoners be released outside of Palestinian territories - a term Hamas is reportedly expected to accept.

“Israel has a vision of alternative lists of Palestinian prisoners, including people who were recently arrested, which could delay the drafting of the agreement,” the source claimed. “Many of the mechanisms for the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the redeployment of forces inside it are still under discussion and have not been finally decided.”

Despite the holdup, the source claimed Egypt believed the United States “will have a greater role in accelerating the pace of negotiations and ending the obstacles that Tel Aviv has brought back to the forefront, even if the names of the prisoners to be released are changed.”

Reports on the terms of a prospective deal

Despite the complications, a Hamas official told Saudi's Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday that there is a "great opportunity to announce a prisoner exchange deal with Israel and understandings for a ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip.

"If US President-elect Donald Trump succeeds in preventing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from evading or obstructing, we will be facing a three-stage exchange deal and a gradual ceasefire agreement, perhaps before the end of the year, i.e., before Trump's inauguration,” the official claimed. 

Informed sources told the Saudi news outlet that the ceasefire agreement is likely to see a pause in fighting for 6-8 weeks, with a preliminary truce for two weeks that will be renewed for a month. The pause in fighting would come in exchange for 20 living civilian hostages, including five with dual citizenship.

Israel will also reportedly release a number of Palestinian prisoners “including at least 100 with long prison sentences,” sources told the outlet.

At least 400 aid trucks carrying fuel and other materials will also allegedly be allowed to enter Gaza.

The sources claimed that "the second phase negotiations will begin after that regarding the military detainees in exchange for a number of Palestinian prisoners," indicating that "the negotiations will move to the exchange of the bodies of the dead, as Israel will present a list of the number of Palestinian prisoners it arrested after October 7, 2023."

The sources added that while the IDF would be allowed to remain temporarily in the Philadelphi Corridor, forces would slowly withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

Another Hamas source told Asharq Israel "will allow the operation of the crossings designated for the entry of aid, including the border crossing with Egypt, and then gradually re-operate the Rafah crossing according to mechanisms that will be agreed upon and based on the crossing operation mechanism established in 2005, which includes the presence of European observers, with priority given to the passage of humanitarian cases such as the injured and patients with urgent cases first, then expanding the work of its mechanism."