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Israel’s President Isaac Herzog spoke to Elon Musk this week in a bid to enlist the world’s richest man to maintain the stalled negotiations for the discharge of Israeli hostages on the incoming Trump administration’s agenda.
The dialog, which occurred on the urging of a number of the households of hostages nonetheless being held by Hamas, was a part of Herzog’s “huge and pretty in depth efforts to use strain on all events”, an individual accustomed to the dialog stated. About 100 hostages, greater than a 3rd of whom are believed to be lifeless, are nonetheless held within the besieged enclave.
The unconventional outreach to Musk, who has no official function involving the Center East in President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, underlines each Musk’s outsize function through the transition interval and the lengths to which the determined households of hostages should resort to inject urgency into the problem.
Whereas it’s unclear what day Musk and Herzog spoke, Trump posted on his social community Fact Social on Monday night that if the hostages are usually not launched by the point he takes workplace on January 20 “there shall be ALL HELL TO PAY within the Center East”.
Trump has spoken a number of instances to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since profitable the election — even internet hosting Netanyahu’s spouse and son at his Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this week — and to Herzog, who has a ceremonial function in Israeli politics.
In an earlier dialog on November 11, Herzog “emphasised the pressing have to safe the return of the Israeli hostages”, in accordance with his workplace.
The newest dialog between Musk and Herzog was of a “basic nature, and from a coverage to . . . put strain wherever strain will be positioned to maintain the problem” entrance and centre, the particular person accustomed to the dialog stated. The decision was first reported by Israel’s Channel 12.
The particular person stated the decision was not merely an try to affect Trump. “Musk’s function within the Trump camp is one factor however he’s additionally the important thing determine of one of the vital necessary social media platforms for consciousness and narrative,” they stated.
Musk didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Hamas took 250 individuals hostage in its shock October 7, 2023 raid on Israel, which killed 1,200 individuals, in accordance with native officers. Whereas dozens have been launched in a quick Israeli hostage-for-Palestinian prisoner swap in November that yr, the remaining have remained captive regardless of many failed rounds of oblique negotiations between the US and Israel with mediators Egypt and Qatar.
Seven of the remaining hostages additionally maintain American nationality, though 5 of them are believed to be lifeless.
Trump has blamed outgoing US President Joe Biden for failing to safe the discharge of the hostages, and is banking on a renewed set of negotiations to succeed. This might repeat the spectacle of the discharge of US diplomats held hostage in Iran beneath Jimmy Carter, who have been freed as Ronald Reagan took energy in 1981.
Negotiations have stalled over Hamas’s demand that the staggered launch of all of the hostages accompany assurances that Israel’s warfare in Gaza will concurrently wind down and ultimately finish.
Netanyahu has resisted this, sparking avenue protests in Israel as extra hostages both die from their accidents, from Israeli bombings or are executed by Hamas as IDF forces shut in on their places.
However this final week a tentative new strategy was made, in accordance with two individuals accustomed to the scenario. They stated Ronen Bar, chief of Israeli home intelligence service Shin Guess, conveyed to Egyptian intelligence that Israel would conform to a 60-day ceasefire in trade for the discharge of the feminine hostages, wounded and aged.
Hebrew media reported that Israel would take into account releasing Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israeli residents, and at the moment serving life sentences, within the swaps.
Israeli and US negotiators hope that the killing earlier this yr of Hamas chief Yahyeh Sinwar, and the continued army strain on the militant group, will power it to melt its demand for a whole finish of hostilities.
Israel’s offensive has killed greater than 44,000 Palestinians, most of them ladies and youngsters, in accordance with native well being officers, displaced a lot of the total 2.3mn inhabitants within the besieged enclave and triggered a extreme starvation disaster.
A global diplomat, who had been briefed by the Egyptians on the strategy, stated the format was much like the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah, which can be initially 60 days in size however designed to result in a everlasting settlement.
Further reporting by Joe Miller
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