Almanar
23/12/2009 Senior Hamas sources told Ynet Wednesday that Israel's response to the proposed prisoner exchange deal meant to retrieve captured Israeli occupation soldier Gilad Shalit, as delivered by the German mediator, was "unacceptable."
Nevertheless, the Islamic resistance group said it would continue with the negotiation, and the efforts to sway Israel's stand.
Ynet learned of Hamas' opinion mere hours after group officials met with the German mediator and his team. Hamas said the group will now embark on a series of debates involving leaderships in Damascus, Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Hamas' final answer is expected only after the extensive deliberations will be concluded. A source closed to Hamas' negotiation team stressed the group will consider "all political and humane" aspects of the talks prior to making its decision.
Earlier, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar told Israel Radio that the German mediator met with the Islamic resistance group's mediating team for three hours in Gaza on Wednesday, and relayed Israel's latest proposal in talks on the prisoner exchange deal.
The mediator has left the Gaza Strip for Germany and is expected back after Christmas.
In London, an editorial published in Al-Quds Al-Arabi urged Hamas to reject Israel's latest offer. "The biggest error Hamas could possibly commit would be to accept [Israel's] conditions for the release of [Palestinian] prisoners, either to the Gaza Strip (West Bank residents) or to exile in Europe," said the London-based newspaper. Hamas, it said, "must hold firm in its refusal to conditions and pressure exerted by Israel and the West, even if this leads to the collapse of the deal."
In Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened the Security Cabinet on Wednesday morning to discuss recent progress made in the negotiations.
Netanyahu was using "tough conditions" to try and lure the Palestinian side into making concessions demanded by "angry far-right parties that form the backbone of the [Israeli] coalition," the London-based paper asserted.
The report stated that Hamas was aware of the Israeli negotiating strategy and was therefore "insisting on its position and avoiding the need to make any concessions," both in terms of the number of detainees to be freed and the conditions for their release.
The editorial called on the Palestinians to uphold the right of return by outright rejecting the notion of prisoners' expulsion "even if [it is the expulsion of] a small number of deportees, and even if it was conditional on a specific period of time."
Meanwhile on Wednesday morning Al-Hayat reported that negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the prisoner swap deal now hinged on seven Palestinian prisoners.
According to the pan-Arab newspaper, Israel still adamantly refuses to release Tanzim chief and former Fatah Secretary-General Marwan Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmad Saadat, and Hamas military wing officials Ibrahim Hamed, Abdullah Barghouti, Abbas a-Sayyid, Jamal al-Hijja and Hassan Salameh .
The report stated, however, that the two sides have agreed on the release of 443 out of 450 of the detainees demanded by the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
Speaking for Hamas, a Beirut-based leader in the organization said Tuesday night that the Islamic resistance group cannot agree to a deal that includes the principle of exile." Osama Hamdan's statement came despite the fact that the organization had accepted the limitation in the past.
"Because Hamas, or any other Palestinian faction, cannot agree to the expulsion of Palestinians we insist that all the prisoners are released to their homes and families," Hamdan said, added that Israeli media reports about the future expulsions are merely an attempt to weaken Hamas' position in the negotiations.
Among the issues hampering a consensus among the forum of seven Israeli ministers are concerns about releasing Palestinians who were sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Israelis. There is also the issue of deterrence, which also extends to the broader context of Middle East politics. The fear is that Israel's acceptance of the deal would signal weakness.
The future security in the West Bank is another subject of concern, in particular the potential implications of releasing experienced detainees to the fledgling Palestinian Authority.
The Shin Bet security service has already voiced concerns that some of the detainees slated for release have honed their skills inside prison. Past experience has shown that many of the released detainees will revert to resistance activities.
Uprooted Palestinian
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