Posted on 01/16/25
| News Source: Arutz-7
A diplomatic source said on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is insistent on finalizing all the details of the hostage deal before bringing it to the vote of the Security Cabinet and the Cabinet.
"Netanyahu strongly refused Hamas's demand to change the deployment of troops in on the Philadelphi Corridor and thus he is standing firmly against Hamas's other demands today, which deviate from the understandings that were reached during the negotiations. It seems that this insistence bears fruit, but until the matters are completely finalized, Prime Minister Netanyahu will not convene the Cabinet and government.'
Earlier in the evening, Shas Party Chairman Aryeh Deri announced that Israel and Hamas have overcome the obstacles on the path to implementing the hostage deal.
"A few minutes ago I received a final message that they overcame all the obstacles and the deal is underway. Now they are dealing with the final technical wording. I want to congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu, he's responsible for the deal," Deri stated.
After that, a diplomatic source confirmed the statements and said that the Security Cabinet will convene most probably on Friday, followed by the Cabinet to approve the deal.
During his farewell press briefing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to a question about the delay in Israel's approval of the deal due to Hamas' last-minute demands, Blinken said that this was "not surprising" given how difficult it was to achieve a ceasefire deal over the previous 15 months and that he does not expect this to delay the implementation of the deal on Sunday.
"It's not exactly surprising that in a process, in a negotiation, that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end. We're tying up that loose end as we speak. I've been on the phone in one way or another all morning with Brett McGurk, with our Qatari friends, and I'm very confident that this is moving forward and we'll see the start of the implementation of the agreement on Sunday.," Blinken said.