By Rabia Ali
ISTANBUL (AA) – A former Israeli hostage negotiator has revealed details of his plan to end the war on Gaza in three weeks, a proposal he says has been accepted by Hamas but is yet to see the light of day.
Gershon Baskin, known for his role in facilitating past negotiations between Israel and Hamas, including the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, put forward a proposal to his contacts within the Palestinian group earlier this month.
In an interview with Anadolu, he said Hamas agreed to the terms, which included an end to Israeli presence in Gaza, along with the release of all Israeli hostages and “an agreed upon” number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons – all within the span of just three weeks.
The activist said he was approached by families of Israeli hostages to negotiate with Hamas for “a better deal” than the one currently on the table.
Baskin started discussions with a Hamas leader who is part of the group’s negotiating team and whom he has known for 18 years.
“I asked a very simple question: Would you (Hamas) agree to a deal that would end the war in three weeks?” he said.
“Israel would withdraw from Gaza totally. You would release all the hostages … dead and alive in Gaza, and there would be an agreed upon release of Palestinian prisoners.”
The Hamas contact, according to Baskin, took several days for internal discussions before confirming that they agreed to the deal.
“Now I decided to go public with it, and I have notified the Qataris, Egyptians, the US, and notified the Israeli public as well as the Israeli negotiating team,” he said.
Baskin clarified that he is not involved in the negotiations in an official capacity, so he urged Hamas to announce their decision about the proposal themselves.
“I don’t represent Hamas and I don’t represent the government of Israel,” he said.
“What I urged is for the Israeli negotiators to ask the Qataris and the Egyptians to ask Hamas if they agreed to the deal.”
Regarding a response from the mediators, Baskin said he cannot discuss the details as it is “in the works.”
“It’s in the hands of the officials. This has to go on an official track,” he said.
“I’ve communicated with Hamas. I’ve communicated with the families. I’ve communicated with very important Israelis who said that they will communicate with the Israeli negotiators.”
Since Oct. 7, Baskin said he has been contacted several times by family members of Israeli hostages and the forum set up by their families, and once by the Israeli negotiating team.
“I hope that we can move this forward because there is a possibility to end this war in three weeks,” he said.
- Netanyahu ‘will not make an agreement that ends the war’
The persistent deadlock in talks for a cease-fire is because “the positions of Israel and Hamas are diametrically opposed,” according to Baskin.
“Hamas says that they will not make any agreement with Israel that does not end the war, and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position is that he will not make an agreement with Hamas that ends the war,” he explained.
“These two diametrically opposed positions have created a situation whereby the mediators, the US, Qatar and Egypt, have been spending three months on negotiating a bad deal,” he said, referring to the three-phase proposal announced in May by US President Joe Biden.
That deal includes processes that will take months, during which only a small number of Israeli hostages would be returned and the fate of the others would be unknown, he said.
Then it has a provision for Israel’s gradual withdrawal in the first 45 days from what has been called Gaza’s “populated areas,” he said.
“There are no unpopulated areas in Gaza. It’s a very small densely populated area,” said Baskin.
“They’ve spent a lot of time in these negotiations, defining the minutiae … A huge waste of time because the bottom line is they’ve spent three months on these negotiations without reaching an agreement.”
The former mediator said the stalemate in truce talks has allowed the war to continue for too long.
“It has allowed for too many Israeli hostages to be killed, too many Palestinians to be killed, too much suffering to continue happening while there is a complete and total lack of a strategic vision by anyone involved for the day after,” he said.
On the future of Gaza, Baskin stressed that its reconstruction and rehabilitation is closely linked to the political setup that emerges once the war ends.
“No one in the world would provide the money to rebuild Gaza if Hamas remains in control … The Palestinians have the task of finding an alternative leadership to govern Gaza, and eventually govern all of Palestine as a unified government.”
- Biden fueling war as Israel plans reoccupation of Gaza
Echoing a view held by many around the world, Baskin asserted that the only player with the power to force Israel’s hand remains the US.
“Biden needs to put an end to this war. Biden fueled this war for too long, providing Israel with bombs and a free hand to do what it wants. We all know that the US could have put an end to this war within a week if it wanted to,” he said.
To move forward, said Baskin, the US must “scrap the bad plan that they hope to develop and that’s been negotiated to death for three months.”
“They need to accept this three-week plan and push it forward and … force it on Israel and on Hamas through the Qataris and the Egyptians,” he said.
He emphasized that Israel must be forced to accept a truce deal because Netanyahu does not want to end the war and is, instead, planning for a reoccupation of Gaza.
“Anyone who talks about staying on the Philadelphi Corridor … is talking about the reoccupation of Gaza,” said Baskin, referring to one of the main Israeli demands that has become a major sticking point in negotiations.
“He (Netanyahu) has members of his government who are drawing up deep and detailed plans for new Israeli settlements in Gaza. There are people who have written up plans to evacuate the entire north of Gaza … and whoever doesn’t leave will be considered a Hamas fighter and will be killed, and then to bulldoze it all flat and to build Israeli settlements.”