Last-minute crisis resolved: Israeli officials said Thursday evening that the crisis surrounding the identity of the Palestinian terrorists who will be released in the hostage deal has been resolved and that 'there is a deal'; The cabinet and government will meet Friday to approve the deal, and release of the first hostages is expected to begin as early as Sunday.
The sources' comments came minutes after Shas Party Chairman Aryeh Deri also announced that he had received "a final announcement that all obstacles have been overcome, and the hostage deal is underway." According to Deri, who congratulated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the agreement, "the parties are now busy with the final technical wording."
Deri, who spoke at the annual Shas conference in Jerusalem, also addressed the widespread opposition to the deal in the coalition, saying: "I understand the opposition, I feel this pain, it's not easy to release murderers, but we all know what the commandment of ransoming captives is. We grew up in the seminary of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and we know how important the commandment of ransoming captives was for him."
Deri's remarks came against the backdrop of a dispute that emerged at the last minute over the identities of the terrorists who would be released – including prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment. The parties argued over who is defined as "symbolic" – serious terrorists that Hamas has a great interest in releasing, and that Jerusalem does not wish to include in the deal.
The BBC reported that Hamas tried at the last minute to include the names of two "symbolic" terrorists imprisoned in Israel, so that they would be released as part of the deal. According to the report, this is an effort by the terrorist organization to project an "image of victory" and restore its popularity in the Gaza Strip, which was "significantly affected" by the events of the war, after many Palestinians – including in Gaza – said that Hamas was responsible for their suffering following the October 7 massacre.
Israel had earlier assessed that this was a solvable crisis. "The crisis will be resolved. This is nothing more than last-minute handwringing," said an Israeli official earlier in the day. The deal, he clarified, is "irreversible." Still, the last-minute dispute led to a postponement of the political-security cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday to approve the agreement after which another vote is required in the government plenum.
It is believed that it is still possible to meet the timeframe set by Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani, namely a cease-fire on Sunday at 12:15 p.m., if the cabinet and government approve the agreement Friday - and then there will be enough time to publish the list of terrorists who will be released and allow for an expedited process of petitions to the High Court of Justice, petitions that it is expected to reject.
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White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at the same time that he was confident that the release of the hostages could begin on Sunday, although "there are still some details that need to be sorted out, and we are working very hard on them right now." A US official later told Reuters that both Biden's envoy to the region, Brett McGurk, and Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, were still in Doha and working to resolve the dispute. The US official also estimated that a solution would be found soon.