A former head of the Mossad Hostages and Missing in Action unit, Rami Igra, has described the Israeli proposal for a prisoner exchange with Hamas as “the most difficult proposal ever presented” to the resistance movement, “which will not accept it.” Igra made his comment to Radio 103 FM on Wednesday.
“The biggest question, and perhaps from it we will understand where we stand, is why the State of Israel presented this proposal, which clearly no one will accept,” said the former senior Mossad official. “They included the issue of disarmament in it, as well as the day after, while it is clear that Hamas has been working from the beginning on its survival and that it will not agree to this.”
He added that Israel presented this proposal “because Netanyahu knows that time is running out, not for the captured soldiers, but for him. Trump clearly said, during the press conference in which Netanyahu was hung out to dry, that the war must end, and it will end quickly.”
Igra pointed out that it is important to consider that Trump will soon travel to Saudi Arabia, which is proposing $1.3 trillion in investments in the US, and which is demanding a solution for the establishment of a Palestinian state in order to normalise relations with Israel.
“Given all of these circumstances, it’s clear to Netanyahu that just as they forced him to implement the first stage [of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement], they will force him to implement the second stage, which will include the Egyptian solution, stipulating the rule of an administrative committee in Gaza.” We have lost the battle, and we have no choice, he added.
“The matter is moving quickly towards Iran, and there Netanyahu is throwing around phrases like ‘dismantling such as in Libya’ while the Americans are not listening. We must realise that Netanyahu brought us here with no alternative to Hamas’s rule. He wasted a year and a half because he was afraid of this solution due to his political partners.”
The Americans, he said, are the ones who decide. “Trump is busy with a hundred things in various fields, and he ultimately wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize and achieve normalisation with Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu wants to stay in power, and that will be difficult for him. He will have to agree to the second stage. Think about how he left Hungary on his way to Trump, and how he left there like a child who was beaten by Trump.”
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