(Jerusalem Post) Yonah Jeremy Bob - Former top Israel Security Agency official Arik Barbing told the Jerusalem Post in an interview that he does not expect a quick and comprehensive resolution of the hostage issue. He believes that any deal with Hamas will leave a certain number of hostages in Hamas's possession and that some kind of extended standoff is inevitable. "Hamas will never give back all of the hostages. They will preserve some ambiguity about who is left. There are also questions about where the dead bodies of those hostages who were killed are. Hamas lost some of the bodies. Some, Islamic Jihad is holding. Some, criminal Gazan elements who are loyal to and associated with Hamas are holding." He believes Hamas will play games and only give hostages back in rounds of deposits. "We probably cannot get 100% back - there will be some Ron Arad-type cases where we will never get the bodies back." "We cannot leave Gaza now because Hamas will not keep the deal for the rest of the hostages anyway, and then it will be harder for the IDF to go back. There is no one yet to replace Hamas. We need to be very strong against Hamas. If we leave a vacuum, Hamas will come back fast."
2024-12-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive