Posted on 08/21/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Negotiations for a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group are on the brink of collapse, US and Israeli officials told Politico.
The officials - two US and two Israeli - told Politico that there is no clear alternative for the deal which Hamas has rejected. They noted that Israel accepted the offer, but Hamas is refusing to do the same.
According to one of the US officials, Hamas had privately indicated that it was amenable to the deal, even though its public rhetoric said otherwise. Now, many US officials are unsure whether Hamas is opposed to or interested in the agreement.
One of the officials told Politico, "We don’t know if [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar wants this deal. But if we don’t get the deal there’s a chance that Iran attacks and this escalates into a full blown confrontation."
If the efforts to reach a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal with Hamas fall through, that would raise the chance of an Iranian attack on Israel - which one US official noted is "obviously the biggest concern here and something we’ve been trying to avoid since Oct. 7."
"But the chances of that happening increase significantly if Hamas doesn’t agree to this proposal."
The officials in this story were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive diplomatic negotiations. The National Security Council and the Israeli embassy in Washington declined to comment to Politico.