It seems clear that Netanyahu's office senses the danger coming from the "Hostage Families Forum" and seeks to contain it and dominate its decisions, in an attempt to remove any stumbling block in the way of carrying out the tasks of the Israeli War Council and in front of Netanyahu's personal ambitions.

The Israeli leadership is trying to suggest that there is a race against time between the ground operation and the prisoner exchange operation, and it is sending a message to the resistance factions that delaying the implementation of the exchange deal that was talked about, which includes children and women, is accelerating the ground operation, while suggesting to its audiences and the families of the Israeli hostages that the ground operation, Which has already begun, serves the exchange process and does not conflict with it, and the ground incursions deep into the Gaza Strip are to pressure Hamas to implement the deal, and not an announcement to drop it from its calculations.

The issue of the hostages, which the Israeli leadership tried to marginalize and drop from the goals of the war on Gaza, was forcefully brought back to the forefront due to pressure from the families of the Israeli hostages held by the resistance factions, and due to Hamas moving this issue through the release of four female prisoners and the publication of videos and recorded messages, the most recent of which was the tape that she released. Monday, for three female prisoners, which Israel still prohibits broadcasting in its media.

The “liberation” of soldier Uri Megidish, whom Israel claimed had been released, came at a time when voices were rising demanding that priority be given to a complete or partial prisoner exchange process before the ground operation that might pose a threat to the lives of Israeli prisoners. The “liberation” operation came, which the army did not reveal. The Shin Bet has not revealed any details about her so far, in opposition to that point of view and in contradiction to it and a free hand to the Israeli army in the ground war, and in this context came the statement of the former head of the Mossad, Danny Yatom, that her release proved that the ground operation and the process of liberating the prisoners were scheduled together and not in conflict.

On the other hand, the former head of the Shin Bet, Yaakov Peri, in an interview with Channel 13 this morning, expressed his support for a comprehensive prisoner exchange deal in which all Israeli prisoners, whose number according to the last amendment by the Israeli army spokesman, amounted to 240 people, in exchange for all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, a deal proposed by the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar.

Perry had recently announced his withdrawal from the “Families Campaign to Return Hostages Forum” due to differences in views related to the position on Netanyahu, as a result of which the former official in charge of the prisoners and missing persons file, David Meidan, also withdrew, and it later led to the resignation of Dodi Zelmenovich, one of The founders of the campaign, who announced his resignation following accusations leveled against him of collusion with Netanyahu’s office in selecting representatives of the families who will meet with the latter, against the backdrop of the Families Forum’s protest that it was not informed of the ground operation.

It seems clear that Netanyahu’s office senses the danger coming from the “Hostage Families Forum” and seeks to contain it and dominate its decisions, in an attempt to remove any stumbling block in the way of carrying out the tasks of the Israeli War Council and in front of Netanyahu’s personal ambitions, which places the next day after the war among his priorities, which is What became clear was the people’s controlled reaction to the hostage tape broadcast by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Journalist Rafif Drucker believes that what Netanyahu and others say about the compatibility of the goal of freeing the hostages with the goal of undermining Hamas’ authority in the Gaza Strip is a kind of lie, and that there is no way to achieve the two goals together because they are contradictory, as Hamas will go to an exchange deal only if it realizes that Israel neglected the goal of eliminating it.

Drucker ridicules those who say that it is possible to conduct a comprehensive exchange, and after that we begin the battle to eliminate Hamas, because although the goal of liberating prisoners is important to Hamas, as he says, it is not the highest goal, which is to preserve its existence and authority. Therefore, a comprehensive deal will not take place unless this is confirmed.

Drucker believes that the Israeli leadership has two options: either to conduct a comprehensive exchange deal and give up the goal of undermining Hamas’s authority, with all the costs that this entails related to deterrence and the possibility of returning the residents of the Gaza envelope to their homes, or to implement a comprehensive ground operation and eliminate Hamas’ leadership, destroy the tunnels, and throw it off the rails. Authority in Gaza, then remaining there until an alternative authority is found, and paying the price by sacrificing the majority or all of the prisoners.

The most important question that Drucker poses is whether the Israeli army is capable of carrying out this mission, because the worst scenario, according to him, is to launch a comprehensive attack and incur heavy losses that will fall on the heads of the families of the hostages and the heads of all Israelis, and then get involved in Gaza, as the army commented. Russian in Ukraine.

Source: Arab48