Negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, which includes a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, are still stalled, while the widespread belief in Israel is that its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, does not want to stop the war and is delaying reaching a deal, because that would lead to the collapse of the war. His government is therefore forced to submit to the dictates of the extreme right, represented by Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who demand the continuation of the war and settlement again in the Gaza Strip.

Yesterday, Friday, Nahum Barnea, a political analyst at Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, revealed that the latest estimates in Israel indicate that nearly half of the 134 Israeli hostages in Gaza are “not alive.” He added, "If there is someone on the Israeli side who is procrastinating, he is a criminal."

According to Barnea, there is a dispute within the Israeli negotiating delegation, between the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, and the person responsible for prisoners and missing persons in the army, Nitzan Alon. "The assessments they make in closed deliberations indicate severe disagreements that are difficult to resolve. The mystery of Netanyahu's personality hangs over these disagreements. He is a promising personality in the eyes of the one, and an obstructionist in the eyes of the other."

The head of the Mossad believes that the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, is "procrastinating and is not interested in reaching an agreement." But Barnea pointed out that the Hamas delegation in the Doha negotiations expressed a willingness to advance, “and Israel cannot say no, not in exchange for an American request and not in exchange for the families of the kidnapped.”

Netanyahu granted the Mossad chief a mandate for the Doha negotiations, at the beginning of this week, broader than the previous mandate, according to Barnea. "The Mossad chief could have negotiated a change in the number of prisoners who would be freed in the first phase, and the return of the displaced to the northern Gaza Strip, including their number, age, and gender, and the deployment of Israeli army forces during the ceasefire."

According to Barnea, Hamas insisted on canceling the inspection of the displaced upon their return from the south of the Gaza Strip to the north, and on international guarantees to stop the war and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the entire Gaza Strip, and demanded the release of the number of prisoners that it demanded in the Paris meeting, last month.

The head of the Mossad considered that the Israeli army's operations in the Gaza Strip would make Sinwar retreat, but "this did not happen, because the army does not succeed in the meantime in reaching points that would influence Sinwar, and also because it is immune from being influenced by him."