As everyone now knows, and as is reported in the NEW YORK TIMES article transmitted below, an agreement for an exchange of women and minor-aged prisoners during a four-day "humanitarian pause" has been announced.
If this prisoner swap is completed, which is far from certain, it will clearly be good news for those released on both sides and for their families.
However, in the big picture, it should be irrelevant except for the explicit confirmations of Israel's intentions which have accompanied Israel's announcement of the deal.
As noted in the TIMES article, Israeli officials have stated clearly that "civilians currently in southern Gaza will not be allowed to return to the north." This is consistent with an Israeli intention to first permanently ethnically cleanse the portion of the Gaza Strip north of the Wadi Gaza before moving on to repeat the ethnic cleansing process in the south.
In addition, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated clearly last night: "We are at war, and we'll continue this war until we meet all our objectives: dismantling Hamas, returning our hostages and ensuring that in Gaza there will be no one that threatens Israel."
Since it is obvious that, so long as there is occupation, there will be resistance to occupation, the only conceivable way to ensure that "in Gaza there will be no one that threatens Israel" is to exterminate, expel or "evacuate" the entire Palestinian population of the Strip.
While it is difficult to imagine a way, even if there were a will, to prevent the Israeli government from meeting all of its objectives, any hope, however slight, requires a prompt and realistic appreciation of what those objectives are.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-prisoners-deal.html
Israel and Hamas Agree to Cease-Fire in Exchange for Hostage Release
The agreement calls for a pause in the fighting and for Hamas to free 50 of the captives it seized in its Oct. 7 raid on Israel. Hamas said Israel would release 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
By Patrick Kingsley
Reporting from Jerusalem
After more than six weeks of war, the Israeli government and Hamas announced Wednesday morning that they would uphold a brief cease-fire in Gaza to allow for the release of 50 hostages Hamas captured during its assault last month on Israel.
The decision, first announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in a WhatsApp message, includes a pause of at least four days in the fighting in Gaza. If it holds, it would be the longest halt in hostilities since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks prompted Israel to begin its bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza.
“The Israeli government is committed to the return of all abductees home,” the government said. It added: “Tonight, the government approved the outline for the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 abductees — women and children — will be released for four days, during which there will be a lull in the fighting. The release of every 10 additional abductees will result in an additional day of respite.”
In its own statement on Telegram, Hamas affirmed the deal, saying, “After many days of difficult and complex negotiations, we announce, with the help and blessing of God, that we have reached a humanitarian truce.”
Hamas added that the 50 Israelis would be freed in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian women and detainees under 19 held in Israeli jails.
The Israeli hostages may not be released until Thursday at the earliest to allow time for Israeli judges to review potential legal challenges to an agreement, according to an Israeli official.
Qatar, the lead mediator of the deal, did not immediately comment.
Israel’s statement did not include those details, but the two officials said that Israel had agreed that Israeli troops would remain in their current positions. Civilians currently in southern Gaza will not be allowed to return to the north, the officials added.
But the Hamas statement also said, “While we now announce the arrival of the truce agreement, we affirm that our hands will remain on the trigger, and our triumphant brigades will remain on the lookout to defend our people and to defeat the occupation and aggression.”
Before Israeli ministers voted to approve the hostage deal, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s emergency war cabinet, said the deal was “hard and painful from a human perspective.” But he called it the best possible option to allow Israel to continue “pursuing the campaign” against Hamas.
Mr. Netanyahu, who said this week that freeing the hostages was a “sacred and supreme task,” has been under public pressure to reach a deal. Hamas seized some 240 hostages when it attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.
This month, anguished families of some of the hostages marched from Tel Aviv to Mr. Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, holding up posters of the captives and beseeching him to do more to bring their relatives home.
The United States has been engaged for weeks in indirect talks with Israel, Hamas and Qatar to secure an agreement.
The negotiations have focused on the release of Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli prisons — a group that has grown in size since the Oct. 7 attacks.
About 200 boys, most of them teenagers, were in Israeli detention as of this week, along with about 75 women and five teenage girls, according to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ rights group. Before the Hamas attacks, about 150 boys and 30 women and girls were in Israeli prisons, the group said.
The Israeli military also said that it apprehended 300 people in Gaza during its ground invasion and took them to Israeli territory for “further interrogations.”
A pause in the fighting, however brief, could bring some measure of relief to civilians in Gaza.
About 13,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled territory. More than one million Gazans have been displaced amid heavy airstrikes, and many are running perilously low on basic human necessities like food and water.
As part of its offensive against Hamas, Israel has cut off electricity to Gaza and blocked the delivery of most fuel, saying that Hamas could divert it for military use.
As fighting raged in Gaza, deadly clashes were intensifying on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli troops have been exchanging fire with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia group that exercises de facto control over southern Lebanon.
At least 50 journalists have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which says it has been one of the deadliest periods for reporters since the group began gathering data in 1992.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, blamed Israel for the deaths. “This attack proves once again that there are no limits to Israel’s crimes,” he said in a statement.
The Israeli military said that the episode was under review and that its troops had been responding to a Hezbollah threat. Hezbollah said it had retaliated by targeting Israeli soldiers with guided missiles and by hitting an Israeli military base with rockets.
The Israeli military said that there had been “a number of launches from Lebanon,” but offered no specifics.
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