Contrary to what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his ministers and army commanders say, the "Israel Hayom" newspaper warned that the continuation and deepening of the ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip does not guarantee the return of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas.

In a report prepared by its military commentator Yoav Limor and published in today’s issue, the right-leaning newspaper said that Israel has reached “a dead end in everything related to the issue of its prisoners held by the Hamas movement because it lost valuable time” before it began to address this issue.

The newspaper criticized the occupation government's failure to take advantage of the available opportunities and return as many of its prisoners as possible through exchange deals, based on the assumption that things in the future may be worse.

The newspaper criticized the occupation government's failure to exploit the available opportunities and return as many of its prisoners as possible through exchange deals

"Israel Hayom" indicated that Netanyahu and members of the small ministerial council for governance affairs did not have convincing answers when they met last night with representatives of the families of prisoners held by Hamas, pointing out that Netanyahu and members of the war council were unable to say that the military strategy they are working on in the Gaza Strip It ultimately ensures the return of the prisoners.

It pointed out that the occupation leadership’s pledge to return the prisoners is based on “words without actions,” as it pointed out that it was a long time before Israel formed the working teams charged with dealing with the prisoners’ issue, in addition to the passage of another time before it began conducting “serious” negotiations with the movement. agitation.

The report indicated that the occupying state did not attempt to reach a new alternative path to the path upon which several prisoner exchange deals were implemented with Hamas, which finally collapsed due to the dispute between the occupation and the movement regarding the criteria for releasing prisoners on both sides.

The newspaper added that there is no guarantee that the intensification of military pressure on the Hamas movement will help push it to change its position on the process of negotiating a prisoner exchange, pointing to the growing risks to the lives of Israeli prisoners due to the bombing of the occupation forces or the spread of diseases.

The report highlighted that the occupation leadership’s clinging to the opinion that the Hamas movement “understands only the language of force” and that military pressure through expanding and deepening the ground maneuvers will force the movement’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, to show flexibility in everything related to the prisoners. A mistake that may later turn out to be “difficult to repair.”

The newspaper stressed that since the "state" was negligent in defending the prisoners and did not succeed in preventing Hamas from capturing them, it "does not have the right to abandon them again."

According to the newspaper, the return of prisoners from the Gaza Strip is a strategic goal of the war that is no less important than the second goal of eliminating the Hamas movement, warning that Israel’s failure to achieve it means that it will not be able to “look at itself and its citizens.”

Source: Alaraby Aljadeed