By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) - Official Israeli documents revealed Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds near-absolute authority in talks on Israeli prisoners held in the Gaza Strip.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said Netanyahu solely oversees discussions with his negotiation team, issues instructions, receives updates, determines when to brief the political-security cabinet and what is significant enough to be discussed and what needed decision-making.
It reported that the information stems “from documents submitted by the state to the Supreme Court and from a series of conversations with senior political and military officials.”
The documents include a submission by Prime Minister's Secretary Yossi Fuchs to the Supreme Court in response to a petition filed by the families of prisoners in Gaza, who complained about Netanyahu's dominance in decision-making.
“Since the dissolution of the unity government and the war management council he led, Netanyahu has retained daily management and most decisions related to the Gaza prisoner crisis and negotiations for a potential release deal,” said the report.
The families of prisoners argued in their petition that Netanyahu acts unilaterally on this issue, it added.
Netanyahu does not provide information to the political-security cabinet or allow it to make decisions, not only regarding a final deal but also concerning dramatic moves during negotiations, such as team mandates and concessions Israel might be willing to make, the newspaper reported.
“In fact, as noted in the state's response to the petition, Prime Minister's Secretary said that during the entire war, all details of the hostages and missing persons deals were not presented for discussion before the political-security cabinet,” according to the report.
The Supreme Court is set to soon begin deliberations on the case, the newspaper reported.
Netanyahu denies the accusations and rejected a request from the negotiation team to expand its mandate to enable it to reach a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas, according to Israel media late Tuesday.
The negotiation team has complained for months about the limited authority granted by Netanyahu, preventing an agreement through indirect negotiations with the Palestinian resistance group, according to media reports and opposition leaders.
Tel Aviv holds at least 9,500 Palestinians in its prisons and estimates that there are 101 Israeli prisoners in Gaza. Hamas announced that dozens of the captives were killed in random Israeli airstrikes
The families of the prisoners and the opposition accuse Netanyahu of refusing to end the war and withdraw from Gaza for fear of his coalition government collapsing, amid threats by extremist ministers to withdraw from the government.
Israel has launched a genocidal war on Gaza following a Hamas attack last year. The ensuing Israeli onslaught has killed nearly 44,000 people, most of them women and children, and injured more than 104,000.
The second year of genocide in Gaza has drawn increasing international recognition, with figures and institutions labeling Israel’s actions as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio