Israel’s coalition is advancing a bill to prohibit terrorism-funding states from playing a role in diplomatic affairs between Israel and other countries or foreign entities
Passage of the legislation into law in its current form, broadcaster Channel 13 reported on Thursday, would remove Qatar—long considered a terrorist-backing state—as a central mediator in the indirect talks between Jerusalem and Hamas over a Gaza ceasefire and a hostages-for-terrorists exchange.
The bill was submitted by MKs Moshe Saada (Likud), Michal Woldiger (Religious Zionism) and Yitzhak Kroizer (Otzma Yehudit). The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is expected to decide on Sunday whether the government will back the legislation.
The bill’s overall goal is to fight against countries that funded or supported terrorist activities against Israel.
Negotiations between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization have been taking place for months via mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States. Reports in recent weeks claimed that a breakthrough was reached and a deal might be cemented before President Joe Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed optimism on Monday regarding a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“If we don’t finalize it within the next two weeks, I’m confident it will be completed eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later. When it does, it will be based on the plan President Biden proposed,” Blinken told reporters in Seoul.
President-elect Donald Trump publicly warned Hamas on Dec. 31, telling an interlocutor at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that “there will be hell to pay” unless the remaining hostages are freed by the time he is sworn in.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump continued. “They better let the hostages come back soon.”
The negotiations currently center on the prospect of a 60-day ceasefire and the release of up to 30 hostages, according to what mediators told The Wall Street Journal. Israel would set free Palestinian prisoners (i.e. terrorists) and allow more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza in exchange, they said.
But Hamas wants bodies of dead hostages to be included in the 30 freed Israelis, to which Israel objected. And Israel has refused to release some of the terrorists sought by Hamas, which insists the ceasefire include a framework for a long-term truce.
It is not known how many of the hostages are alive.
On Wednesday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office denied Arab media reports on the framework of a supposed emerging ceasefire deal.
“The report in the Arab media about a pause of a number of weeks in the war in exchange for a list of hostages’ names is absolutely false and an additional part of the psychological warfare that Hamas is trying to use on the hostages’ families and the citizens of Israel,” the PMO stated, adding that “the State of Israel will continue to work relentlessly, around the clock, to bring all of our hostages back home.”
