The prisoner swap could begin as early as November 23rd. It will take place in phases over four days, with Hamas releasing around a dozen captives each night. They will be sent from Gaza to Egypt, and then back to Israel. For each hostage freed, Israel will release three Palestinian prisoners (also women and children) from its jails. Negotiations began almost immediately after the October 7th massacre. Diplomatic pressure on Qatar, which hosts some of the Hamas leadership, led to two early agreements to set free four women (including a pair with dual American and Israeli citizenship). Hamas received nothing in return. Those deals showed that Qatar could serve as a go-between with the group. The hostages are Hamas’s greatest leverage over Israel, and it will continue using them to exploit the unavoidable tension in Israel’s war plans. Is this a strategy to defeat Hamas ?
