Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
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What are the recent developments in Israel's negotiations for a ceasefire with Hamas?
On Sunday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem. At the press conference afterwards, Netanyahu hugged Rubio and was enthusiastic about Israel's relationship with the U.S.
President Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House. And the visit in Washington reflected that in every way. And your visit here reflects it in every way.
Netanyahu also praised what he called Trump's bold vision for Gaza, a vision that includes relocating Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries and rebuilding the strip under U.S. ownership. And Netanyahu insisted that he and Trump are on the same page about the urgency of releasing the remaining Israeli hostages.
President Trump and I are working in full cooperation and coordination between us. We have a common strategy. including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will if all our hostages are not released until the last one of them.
Before this past weekend, 24 hostages and more than 730 Palestinian prisoners had been freed during phase one of the ceasefire deal. This weekend, three more were released, all civilian men, in exchange for more than 360 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. There are nearly 10,000 Palestinians in custody in Israel and the West Bank, many held without charge. The current phase of the ceasefire deal ends in less than two weeks, and an Israeli delegation traveled to Cairo today to hash out details for a second phase, even as the number of Palestinian prisoners released, especially ones convicted of serious crimes, has sparked debate among Israelis. Consider this. As talks move toward the second phase of a ceasefire deal, we look at the politics of these exchanges. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.
TNCs apply. It's Consider This from NPR. An Israeli delegation is in Cairo, Egypt today, to talk about the conditions for a second phase of the ceasefire deal. Under the first phase, Hamas agreed to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages, and Israel said it would free around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. NPR's Jerome Sokolovsky looked into why Israel repeatedly accepts deals like this. The wall in Gershon Baskin's office is covered with framed certificates. In the middle, there's a letter from the prime minister. It says, thank you once again. He never thanked me, but to thank you once again. Baskin is an Israeli peace activist. In 2011, he used his Palestinian contacts to help the Israeli government free a soldier named Gilad Shalit.
Militants from the Palestinian group Hamas had taken him hostage five years earlier. The prime minister's letter is dated eight days after Shalit's release. And it thanks Baskin on behalf of the Israeli government. Benjamin Netanyahu's government at the time agreed to exchange Shalit for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. One of them was named Yahya Sinwar. He later became the leader of Hamas in Gaza. The October 2023 massacre that he masterminded and the ensuing war with Israel killed around 1,800 Israelis and 47,000 Palestinians. Hamas also took more than 250 hostages. I wonder if you have any regrets about the Shalit deal?
Look, I have no regrets about the Shalit deal. Shalit was saved if he had been in captivity another month.
His condition would have deteriorated quickly, Baskin believes. Gilad Shalit wasn't the first Israeli exchanged for a large number of prisoners. Soldiers and civilians captured by militant groups in Lebanon have also been freed for hundreds of detainees. And POW exchanges during the Arab-Israeli wars were often similarly lopsided. In the current conflict, Israel has many bargaining chips. There are nearly 10,000 Palestinians in custody in Israel and the West Bank, many held without charge. That's not to say Israel's government wants to do the deals in this way, says Baskin.
Believe me, the Israelis would love to do one for one. They would have no problem doing one for one.
How has the U.S.-Israel relationship influenced the current hostage situation?
But there are a couple of problems with one for one. It's long been a Palestinian goal to free as many of their prisoners in Israeli jails as possible, and the families of Israeli hostages want them out as fast as possible. In this country, which relies on a people's army, there's a social contract.
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