Sources familiar with the talks on a possible prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the Palestinian factions said that if an agreement is reached during the upcoming meeting next Thursday, with the participation of the parties to the ceasefire in Gaza, then “the agreement could be implemented days later.”

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted an unnamed source familiar with the talks as saying that if “the differences between the two parties are bridged, it will be possible to start the agreement within days after the summit next Thursday.” Last Thursday, the leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States called on Israel and Hamas to resume ceasefire and prisoner exchange talks next Wednesday or Thursday in Doha or Cairo, in a joint statement signed by the leaders of the three countries: Egyptian Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Qatari Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and American Joe Biden.

In turn, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced in a statement that an Israeli delegation will head to a location to be determined later to participate in the exchange deal talks (between Tel Aviv and Hamas).

The official broadcasting authority said on Friday that Israeli officials see the upcoming talks as a “last chance summit.”

The authority confirmed, quoting its sources, that Israel is sticking to its demands to control the Philadelphi Corridor and to confirm that Hamas will not remain at the Rafah crossing.

Israel is also demanding an increase in the number of living detainees who will be released and the deportation of Palestinian prisoners accused of killing Israelis, according to the deal, outside the Gaza Strip, according to the same source.

According to sources reported to the broadcasting authority, the summit is expected to be held on Thursday in Doha, but it has not yet been determined who will host it, Egypt or Qatar.

Mossad chief David Barnea is expected to head the Israeli delegation, according to the authority.

For months, Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been leading indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, but they have not resulted in the crystallization of an agreement due to Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand to end the war, withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip and return displaced Palestinians to the north of the Strip.

At the end of last May, Biden presented the terms of a deal offered to him by Israel “to stop the fighting and release all the kidnapped (Israeli prisoners in Gaza),” which Hamas accepted at the time, according to Hebrew media.

But Netanyahu added new conditions, including the Israeli army remaining in the Philadelphi corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt, which he announced its control over on May 29. Both Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Mossad chief David Barnea objected to these conditions, considering that they would hinder reaching a deal.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has left more than 131,000 dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing.

Source: Sama News