Gershon Baskin assumes that Israel has collected an enormous amount of intelligence information from Hamas fighters that they’ve captured and from hostages that have come home and that the search and rescue operations are already beginning by Israel’s special forces
Gershon Baskin, who helped negotiate the Gilad Shalit release from Hamas captivity — and has had significant contact with Hamas over the years — believes that most (if not all) of the 18 women and children that Israel believes to be still held by Hamas are dead.
HaberTurk News cites Gershon Baskin’s correspondence with Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official, in order to shed light on history in terms of understanding the mood of Hamas and where the war will evolve.
Gershon Baskin emphasizes the importance of returning hostages for Israelis, citing the nation’s collective anxiety and hope as they watch their compatriots return.
Gershon Baskin feels that the main interest (for Israelis) is in getting those hostages home and that it is extremely unlikely that after seven weeks, Hamas cannot locate the rest of the hostages as they are likely propagating that news to stall the negotiations.
Gershon Baskin shares with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer his thoughts regarding why Hamas is delaying the 2nd Group of Israeli Hostages.
Diesmal aber gebe es zwei große Unterschiede, sagt Baskin, der selbst nicht an den Verhandlungen beteiligt ist: Gilad Shalit sei als einzelne Geisel von der Hamas während seiner mehr als fünfjährigen Gefangenschaft gut versorgt worden.
Gershon Baskin thinks that assuming the truce holds and that Israel frees Palestinian prisoners as planned, “there is a chance” that all the civilian hostages being held by Hamas will be released.
Gershon Baskin says that when the current hostages arrive in Egypt, their identities will be verified. They will then be given a medical check and sent to Israel,
Gershon Baskin senses that there are two big differences, between the current hostage situation and when there was only a single hostage, Gilad Shalit who was well looked after by Hamas during his more than five years of captivity.