Audio By Carbonatix
One thing you hear from some families of hostages is that they won't quite believe their loved one is coming home until they are walking through the door.
It's a good indicator of the lack of trust between the two sides, for very obvious reasons.
I was in a briefing with a former Israeli hostage negotiator earlier this week who said that the point in these negotiations is that, of course, there is absolutely no trust between Israel and Hamas. And what you effectively replace that with is a sort of confidence and a respect in the mediator, Qatar, which seems to have worked quite well.
They've got a lot of mechanics worked out - where the Red Cross is going to be, and that Israel will stop its drone surveillance above Gaza for six hours in the run up to the hostage release at 16:00 (the specific timings on the surveillance outage are according to the account of the deal by Hamas).
That’s probably because Hamas thinks Israel would use that intelligence to work out where the other hostages are being held.
Obviously, they are trying to conceal that from the Israelis so it’s possible they wouldn't have signed up to the release agreement if the drone surveillance was there.
Israeli officials have previously said they have “other intelligence gathering capabilities” for when there are no drones and balloons in the air.
Latest Stories
-
If Sammy Darko were in Police Service, he wouldn’t even be a Superintendent – Martin Kpebu
5 minutes -
Minister rejects claims of political bias as NDC Regional chair is named North East Best Farmer
13 minutes -
Notorious Ashaiman robber arrested in joint police operation
19 minutes -
OSP says probe into SML predates Manasseh Azure Awini’s petition
47 minutes -
OSP is acting lawlessly; it had zero jurisdiction to arrest Martin Kpebu – Kofi Bentil
57 minutes -
The evolution of smokeless alternatives to smoking
1 hour -
President Mahama commissions National Signals Bureau Regional Command in Ho
1 hour -
Helping adult smokers make better choices through harm reduction
1 hour -
Domestic Violence Secretariat trains market executives as paralegals in Bono Region
1 hour -
CPA slams PURC over 2026 tariff hikes, calls increase “unrealistic” and unfair to consumers
1 hour -
Martin Kpebu was unhappy with move to demand Adom-Otchere’s landed property – Lawyer
1 hour -
US jails Nigerian fraud mastermind for 20 years over nationwide bank scam
2 hours -
US jails Nigerian fraud mastermind for 20 years over nationwide bank scam
2 hours -
Senyo Hosi warns parliament against any move to scrap OSP
2 hours -
Martin Kpebu’s call for Kissi Agyebeng’s removal is hypocrisy and against accountability – Kojo Asante
2 hours
