Impossible for Israel to meet Hamas's demands for hostage deal - ex-Mossad official

• Published date: 27 March 2024
• Author: 103FM VIA MAARIV ONLINE
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"I don't think anything has changed since our last conversation. Hamas said from the beginning, 'We demand an end to the war,' not a ceasefire. They added all kinds of other demands to it, the restoration of the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of the IDF. In short, what they demand from day one is a return to the state of matters from October 6 and their continued existence. The alternative to this is carrying out the war until the IDF's end goals. Hamas is a religious movement ready to die on its sword. For some reason, and I didn't understand it, we are conducting negotiations with ourselves and the Americans about prices; they didn't get there at all. The question of the price is the question of the mediators and the Americans; Hamas has repeatedly said, 'You don't meet our demands,'" Igra began his words

"With all the pain, and there really is enormous pain, the State of Israel has no possibility of making the deal Hamas is asking for. The State of Israel must think about the State of Israel, the citizen must think about his family and his children, brothers, etc., and the state must think not only about them but also about you, me, and our future. Is this tolerance until we reach a ceasefire or patience for the release of the hostages? The time for the survival of the hostages is much shorter. In this matter, we must remember one thing, the price we pay, in the end, is not the prisoners we release but the future we are marching towards. As we saw in the Schalit deal, it was not 1,027 prisoners, it was 2,000 deaths to date. Not that Schalit...