Israel’s spy chief proposed letting Hamas leaders leave Gaza as part of broader

CNN
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Israel has proposed that Hamas senior leaders could leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire agreement, two officials familiar with the ongoing international discussions told CNN.

The extraordinary proposal, which has not been previously reported, comes as Israel has struggled to achieve its stated goal of completely destroying Hamas. Despite its nearly four-month war in Gaza, Israel has failed to capture or kill any of Hamas’s most senior leaders in Gaza and left around 70% of Hamas’ fighting force intact, according to Israel’s own estimates.

Though it would give safe passage out of Gaza for top Hamas leaders who orchestrated the October 7 attack, draining Gaza of its leaders could weaken Hamas’ grip on the war-torn area while also allowing Israel to continue tracking down high-value targets abroad.

Senior Hamas officials are known to live in Doha, Qatar, and the Lebanese capital Beirut, among other places outside the Palestinian territories. An Israeli airstrike earlier this month killed a top Hamas commander in Beirut.

Israel’s suggestion that Hamas leaders could leave Gaza, though unlikely to be accepted by Hamas, has been discussed as part of broader ceasefire negotiations at least twice in recent weeks — once last month in Warsaw by Israel’s intelligence chief, Mossad Director David Barnea, and then again this month in Doha with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to one official familiar with the discussions.

It also comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity to try to achieve an extended break in the fighting and free hostages believed to still be alive in Gaza. The White House’s top official for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, is traveling to Egypt and Qatar this week for further talks.

American and international officials familiar with the negotiations have said that Israel and Hamas’ recent engagement in talks is encouraging but that a deal doesn’t appear imminent.

Pressure is building on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver some kind of resolution. The “complete victory” over Hamas that he has called for is a long way off, by his own admission. Meanwhile, anger among Israelis has grown over the inability of the government to bring home the more than 100 hostages being held in Gaza.

Israel is “not achieving their military objectives,” says Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. That, combined with the “enormous pressure” on Netanyahu and his government to bring hostages home, Miller said, has created a situation where Israel would be willing to propose having Hamas leaders leave Gaza.

“I think they’re simply bumping up against against reality,” said Miller. “And hostage families are beginning to exert tremendous influence.”

In addition, international sentiment toward Israel has soured over its continued bombardment of Gaza, which has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

For the past two months, the Biden administration has been openly calling on Israel to transition to a lower-intensity phase of the conflict, which US officials argue has started happening, though intense operations continue in southern Gaza.

The proposal for Hamas leaders to leave Gaza was raised in Warsaw in December by Barnea, Israel’s top intelligence official when he met with US CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, who has acted as an intermediary with Hamas. The official familiar with the discussions in the meetings said it was then brought up again when Blinken was in the Qatari capital earlier this month.