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All the remaining hostages in Gaza will be released in exchange for greater aid and free passage for Hamas leaders and their families, a report has claimed.
Moti Kahana, an American-Israeli entrepreneur, is working on an ‘extraordinary plan’ to secure all hostages in the Gaza Strip, as well the bodies of fallen Israeli soldiers that have been held by the terrorist group since 2014, Jewish News reported.
The two-stage plan allegedly involves sending medical supplies, baby and hygiene provisions to Gaza for ‘civilian use’. It would also allow ‘Hamas leaders in Gaza, not those involved in the slaughter of Israelis’ to leave the Strip.
In exchange, the plan – which Kahana is reportedly devising in partnership with the White House, a well-known seasoned American negotiator, France, and a Syrian adviser to Kahana’s company – would require Hamas to release all foreign and dual nationality hostages.
The Israeli government has denied knowledge of the alleged plan, telling the newspaper that it ‘sounds like Hamas propaganda stemming from the pressure they are under’.
Moti Kahana, (pictured) an American-Israeli entrepreneur, is working on an ‘extraordinary plan’ to secure all hostages in the Gaza Strip, as well the bodies of fallen Israeli soldiers that have been held by the terrorist group since 2014, Jewish News reported
Pictured: Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper – also known as Nurit Yitzhak – who were held hostages by Palestinian Hamas militants, are released on Monday
The Israeli government has denied knowledge of the alleged plan, claiming that it ‘sounds like Hamas propaganda stemming from the pressure they are under’. Pictured: Palestinians search among the rubble of the destroyed Al Faseih family house following an airstrike in the Al Shatea refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday
Kahana has claimed that there is currently £16million worth of supplies in an American warehouse (pictured) that will be shipped to Egypt when the plan moves forward
Kahana’s plan will allegedly secure the release of all remaining hostages, the presumed bodies of two Israeli soldiers held by Hamas since 2014, and two other Israelis who were taken prisoner in Gaza.
Specific details surrounding the plan are set to be ‘hammered out’ with Hamas leaders in Qatar, according to Jewish News. A timeframe for these discussions was not revealed.
But Kahana has claimed that there is currently £16million worth of supplies in an American warehouse that will be shipped to Egypt when the plan moves forward.
The entrepreneur has also said the phase of the plan that would allow Hamas leaders to leave the Strip does not apply to ‘anyone who was involved on October 7, who crossed the border into Israel and took part in the massacre, and has blood on his hands’.
Kahana claims both Israel and the US have lists of those who would be eligible to leave Gaza and alleges ‘strict control will be exercised’ to ensure terrorists involved in the attack or holding of hostages cannot leave.
The plan, which has not been independently verified by MailOnline, reportedly envisages Hamas leaders leaving Gaza via Egypt or along the shoreline by boat.
The two-stage plan allegedly involves sending medical supplies, baby and hygiene provisions to Gaza for ‘civilian use’. Pictured: A soldier from the Military Rabbinate unit puts on a medical mask and protective gear on Tuesday ahead of working with containers filled with bodies killed during at the Hamas attack on the Israeli southern border
It would also allow ‘Hamas leaders in Gaza, not those involved in the slaughter of Israelis’ to leave the Strip. Pictured: Soldiers of the Military Rabbinate unit open a container filled with bodies of people killed during the Hamas attack on the Israeli southern border as the process of identifying deceased individuals continues in the Shura army base on Thursday
A Palestinian girl clutches salvaged books on Tuesday as people look for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building hit in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip
Palestinians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday
News of the alleged plan comes as Israel has vowed again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls from the United Nations chief, the Palestinians, and many countries at a high-level UN meeting for a ceasefire, and declaring that the war in Gaza is not only its war but ‘the war of the free world’.
Israeli Foreign minister Eli Cohen also dismissed calls for ‘proportionality’ in the country’s response to Hamas’s surprise attacks on Israel on October 7 – which killed 1,400 people and has since led to more than 5,700 Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip, according to its Health Ministry.
‘Tell me, what is a proportionate response for killing of babies, for rape (of) women and burn them, for beheading a child?’ he asked. ‘How can you agree to a ceasefire with someone who swore to kill and destroy your own existence?’
He told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the proportionate response to the October 7 massacre is ‘a total destruction to the last one of the Hamas’, calling the extremist group ‘the new Nazis’.
He added: ‘It is not only Israel’s right to destroy Hamas. It’s our duty.’
Mr Cohen called the Hamas attacks ‘a wake-up call for the entire free world’ against extremism, and he urged ‘the civilised world to stand united behind Israel to defeat Hamas’.
He warned that today it is Israel, and tomorrow Hamas and the attackers ‘will be at everyone’s doorstep’, starting with the West.
Mr Cohen accused Qatar of financing Hamas and said the fate of the more than 200 hostages taken from Israel, some of whose families came to the UN meeting, was in the hands of its emir.
Kahana’s plan will allegedly secure the release of all remaining hostages, the presumed bodies of two Israeli soldiers held by Hamas since 2014, and two other Israelis who were taken prisoner in Gaza. Pictured: Palestinians injured in Israeli air raids arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital on Tuesday
Specific details surrounding the plan are set to be ‘hammered out’ with Hamas leaders in Qatar, according to Jewish News. A timeframe for these discussions was not revealed. Pictured: Palestinians injured in Israeli air raids arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital on Tuesday
In exchange for aid and free passage for Hamas leaders, the plan would require the release of all foreign and dual nationality hostages. Pictured: Palestinians look for survivors in the rubble after Israeli strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday
News of the alleged plan comes as Israel has vowed again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls from the United Nations chief, the Palestinians, and many countries at a high-level UN meeting for a ceasefire. Pictured: A Palestinian girl clutches salvaged books as people look for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building hit in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki demanded an end to the Israeli attacks.
‘We are here today to stop the killing, to stop… the ongoing massacres being deliberately and systematically and savagely perpetrated by Israel, the occupying power, against the Palestinian civilian population,’ he said.
‘Over two million Palestinians are on a survival mission every day, every night.’
Under international law, he said, ‘it is our collective human duty to stop them’. Mr al-Maliki warned that more attacks and killings and weapons and alliances will not make Israel safer: ‘Only peace will.’
‘For those actively engaged to avoid an even greater humanitarian catastrophe and regional spillover, it must be clear that this can only be achieved by putting an immediate end to the Israeli war launched against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,’ he said. ‘Stop the bloodshed.’
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres had opened the monthly meeting on the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict – which has turned into a major event with ministers from the war’s key parties and a dozen other countries flying to New York – warning that ‘the situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour’.
The UN chief said the risk of the war spreading through the region is increasing as societies splinter and tensions threaten to boil over.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki demanded an end to the Israeli attacks. Pictured: Palestinians injured in Israeli air raids arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital on Tuesday
The UN chief said the risk of the war spreading through the region is increasing as societies splinter and tensions threaten to boil over. Pictured: A young boy is carried by an emergency responder as he arrives at Nasser Medical Hospital on Tuesday
The UN Chief called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to deliver desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel. He also appealed ‘to all to pull back from the brink before the violence claims even more lives and spreads even farther’. Pictured: A crying woman stands next to the rubble of a building following Israeli strikes on Rafah, Gaza on Tuesday
He called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to deliver desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel. He also appealed ‘to all to pull back from the brink before the violence claims even more lives and spreads even farther’.
Mr Guterres stressed that the rules of war must be obeyed.
He said the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify ‘the horrifying and unprecedented October 7 acts of terror’ by Hamas in Israel and demanded the immediate release of all hostages.
But Mr Guterres also stressed that ‘those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people’.
He expressed deep concern at ‘the clear violations of international humanitarian law’, calling Israel’s constant bombardment of Gaza and the level of destruction and civilian casualties ‘alarming’.
Protecting civilians ‘is paramount in any armed conflict’, he said. Without naming Hamas, the UN chief stressed that ‘protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields’.
Mr Guterres also criticised Israel without naming it, saying: ‘Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself.’
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres stressed that the rules of war must be obeyed. Pictured: Palestinians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday
Mr Guterres said the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify ‘the horrifying and unprecedented October 7 acts of terror’ by Hamas in Israel and demanded the immediate release of all hostages. Pictured: Rescue workers and soldiers work among the rubble of a destroyed house in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel on Sunday
But Mr Guterres also stressed that ‘those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people’. He expressed deep concern at ‘the clear violations of international humanitarian law’, calling Israel’s constant bombardment of Gaza and the level of destruction and civilian casualties ‘alarming’. Pictured: Rescue workers and soldiers work among the rubble of a destroyed house in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel on Sunday
Mr Cohen criticised the secretary-general’s remarks. After being told by a reporter that Mr Guterres stood by his statement, the Israeli minister said: ‘There is no cause for this, and shame on him.’
Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan went further, taking issue especially with Ms Guterres’s statement that it is important to recognise that ‘the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum’.
He accused the secretary-general of having lost ‘all morality and impartiality’ and called for his resignation.
The US is pushing for adoption of a resolution that would condemn the Hamas attacks in Israel and violence against civilians, and reaffirm Israel’s right to self-defence. There were some expectations that it might go to a vote on Tuesday, but diplomats said it was still being negotiated.