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Why Is Now the Right Time to Make a Deal with Hamas?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel’s wars and victims of attacks, at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, May 13, 2024. Photo: Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool via REUTERS
JNS.org – There has been an enormous, misleading perception concerning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to agree to the latest blackmail, extortion hostage agreement with Hamas.
For those who have criticized the prime minister for waiting until now to sign a deal with Hamas, the fact is that if Netanyahu had agreed to its prior terms, it would have assured that many hostages would remain in Gaza, including Americans. The reason is that it is only recently that Hamas dropped its insistence that Israel agree at the outset of an agreement to a permanent ceasefire, and to leave the Egyptian-Gaza border and the Philadelphi corridor through which the terrorist group has smuggled in weapons.
Netanyahu understood months ago that if Israel gave into Hamas’s terms, it would lose any leverage or pressure it had on the terror. It was only after Israel changed the course of the war in its favor with the decimation of Hezbollah and its leadership; the loss of Syria’s military equipment and assets; the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria; and the success Israel had in knocking out Iran’s missile-defense system that Hamas began to drop its extortionist demands.
Adding to the pressure was then-President-elect Donald Trump’s threat that there would be “hell to pay” if Hamas didn’t return the hostages, and new National Security Advisor Mike Waltz saying Hamas would get a worse deal if it waited for Trump to take office before making a deal.
Even with Israel’s stronger leverage, the terms Israel agreed to were outrageous as the Jewish state is releasing many mass murderers and more than 1,000 terrorists for the return of a third of the hostages.
The fact that some terrorists set to be released have American blood on their hands makes it clear that the United States needs to implement the 20-year-old Koby Mandell Act. Named for a 13-year-old boy with dual citizenship who was stoned to death, along with a teenage friend, by Palestinians, the law requires the US government to investigate and prosecute terrorists who killed Americans overseas. If these terrorists are convicted and imprisoned in the United States, Israel would not be able to release them in prisoner exchanges. It is possible that after all these years, those in government may not be aware of the Mandell Act. A video from about eight years ago of then-Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), now governor of Florida, leading a congressional hearing on the Obama administration’s lack of compliance with the act is on YouTube.
The big question going forward is how can Israel and the United States get back all of the hostages, whether alive or dead, while ensuring Hamas does not remain in power in Gaza.
The only way this can be accomplished is if Washington puts pressure on those Hamas most rely upon to survive—namely, Qatar and Egypt. If the United States told Qatar that it intends to withdraw its military base from the country if all the remaining hostages, including Americans, are not released immediately, there is no doubt they would be released without Hamas’s outrageous terms.
If the United States told Egypt there would be no more US aid unless it opened its border and took in the massive numbers of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza who want to leave, Egypt would open that border.
Civilians must be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip, thus ending Hamas’s ability to hide among the population. Trump’s envoy for the peace talks, Steve Witkoff, floated this idea saying if citizens in Gaza were relocated to Indonesia, it would be a significant help to end Hamas rule in Gaza.
Israel never had an offer from Hamas to release all the hostages at once. Instead, its leaders—as they did in November 2023 when more than 100 hostages came home—have prioritized the return of women, children, the elderly and the infirm. This shows Israel’s high moral principles while negotiating with the evil Hamas regime. With this deal, Israel will hopefully get back alive more than half of the hostages taken on Oct. 7.
The post Why Is Now the Right Time to Make a Deal with Hamas? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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