Former Fatah official says Sinwar warned Israel — Jerusalem Post

Former senior Fatah official Sufian Abu Zaida said that on September 14, 2023, he conveyed to the Israeli side a message from Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip. According to him, Sinwar warned that by the end of the month Hamas would put “cards” on the negotiating table that would cause an “earthquake,” and that Israel should prepare for prisons to be emptied.

Secret channel of contacts

As The Jerusalem Post reports, Abu Zaida spoke about this in a documentary by Al-Ghad television. He claims that for more than a year he acted as an intermediary in a non-public channel of contacts between Israel and Hamas concerning a possible prisoner exchange deal.

According to Abu Zaida’s version, the channel was opened in March 2022 after senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad asked him for help in advancing the negotiations. Abu Zaida contacted a former senior official from Israel’s security services and later met with Israeli representatives. The sides discussed names and lists of prisoners, but no agreement was reached.

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Hamas conditions and meeting in Ashkelon

Abu Zaida also said that he met with Ronen Bar, then head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, and conveyed Hamas’s conditions to him. According to him, Sinwar demanded the release of all imprisoned women, prisoners under the age of 18, people released under the Gilad Shalit deal and later rearrested, as well as prisoners who had been held in custody for a long time. According to these claims, priority was to be given to the sick.

Abu Zaida claimed that the Israeli side proposed measures for the Gaza Strip, including increasing the number of enclave residents permitted to work in Israel, restoring the power grid and other infrastructure, and advancing reconstruction. After conveying Sinwar’s message, he said, the Israeli side asked for confirmation of the content of the remarks and summoned the intermediary to an urgent meeting in Ashkelon the following morning.

Abu Zaida said that he returned to the Gaza Strip on October 5 and was due to meet Sinwar on October 8. The meeting did not take place after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.