07 November 2023 , 21:58
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Israel will have to free 7,000 Palestinian prisoners to secure the release of their 240 citizens held in the tunnels of Gaza, a hostage negotiator has warned.
Gershon Baskin, 67, has dealt with Hamas for two decades. He secured the release of soldier Gilad Shalit after he had been held for five years and four months in Gaza. He has been talking to contacts across the Middle East in a bid to assist in the release of the 240 Israeli prisoners seized by Hamas.
And he believes the best hope for resolution is an ‘all for all’ deal where Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, estimated at around 7,000, would be exchanged for the men, women and children snatched on Oct 7. Gershon believes they are being held in the hundreds of kilometres of tunnels under Gaza, the key obstacle to any Israeli plan to free them through force rather than negotiation.
An Israeli airstrike prompts a massive search and rescue operation in Gaza on Tuesday, November 7 (Anadolu via Getty Images)“There is only one way to get all the hostages out safely and that is in the ‘all for all’ deal,” said Gershon, who lives in Jerusalem and is director of the International Communities Organisation, working for peace in the Middle East. I do not think there is any other deal that would work to get them all out safely, that is the only one Hamas would consider.” Israel would then have to decide where the prisoners would go, including countries sympathetic to Hamas, or Gaza."
He added: “Once they go into the tunnels, however physically with robots or gas or explosives, they are putting hostages in harm’s way between Hamas and the Israeli forces. There could be some miracle rescue missions. Some people might get rescued like the amazing rescue of one soldier from Oct 7. But probably a lot will not be rescued and Israeli soldiers would be killed in the process.
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“The clock stops ticking once Israel goes in a determined way into the tunnels. At that point it becomes apparent that Israel made the decision that it might be sacrificing all the hostages.”
A woman and 13-year-old a girl, May Saad are rescued alive under the rubble of the destroyed building belonging to Al Astal family (Anadolu via Getty Images)He added: “Personally I think that is a blow which Israeli society will never recover from. It means we no longer rely on the state to protect us. It already failed on Oct 7, deciding to sacrifice the 240 hostages is a signal to the Israeli public that everything we have here is not worth living for.
“That is how critical it is for the future of this country and society; I do not know how the country would recover from the decision to sacrifice the hostages.”
Beirut could play a key role in negotiations. It is understood Qatar was involved in the talks which saw four hostages freed by Hamas last month. They reportedly sent text message updates to families of some hostages. Gershon played a key role in the release of Israeli soldier Shilat, captured in 2006 and freed in 2011. Negotiations were held in Egypt where lists of Hamas prisoners were passed from one building in Cairo, to an Israeli team.
An Israeli vigil held in Tel Aviv to mark one month since the Hamas attacks on October 7 that marked the beginning of hostilities (Getty Images)In the end, 1,027 Palestinians and Arab-Israelis prisoners were freed, including Yahya Sinwar, the current Palestinian leader of Hamas, in exchange for Shilat’s freedom after five years. Gershon said of Sinwar: “It is 100 percent certain that he is under Gaza and leading this, he is going to be killed in battle, he is not going to run away. I try to make the links where possible between different people.
“I am talking to everyone I can reach about what kind of deals can be made. I have not officially been appointed unlike in the past. To eliminate and kill them all, they did not expect that response from Israel. But we are dealing with people who expect to die and want to be martyrs which makes the situation entirely unpredictable.” Those released could be arrested, or even killed by Israel, at a later date.
Around 4,000 labourers from Gaza are being held in military bases; it is unclear if they would be part of any negotiation.