GERSHON BASKIN, MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES ORGANIZATION, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: In exchange for all the hostages. That is something that Israel is not willing to do and that’s why Israel finally took an initiative and put an alternative on the table, which is less than what Hamas is demanding.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So what you’re saying is an all-for-all is off the table for Israel. What would be on the table, meaning what proportion of Palestinian prisoners do you believe Israel would be willing to release to get this done to get their people home?
BASKIN: Yeah. I don’t — I don’t think the issue is the number of the Palestinian prisoners along as Israel arrests Palestinians every day. My estimation is that there are probably more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners today with half of them being arrested since the beginning of the war on October 7.
The issue for Hamas now is that they are not willing to accept a temporary ceasefire. Hamas wants a full end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. I’ve learned from 17 years of negotiating with Hamas that they say what they mean and they mean what they say, and their willingness to compromise is on the margins of their demands and not on the demands themselves.
HARLOW: It sounds like you do not think this is going to lead to be fruitful. Is that right?
BASKIN: I think that what might be possible is an interim deal where Hamas might be willing to negotiate the release of those who are described as civilians, the elderly, the sick, the wounded. There are about 19 young women who are being held that Israeli believes are being badly sexually abused. I don’t know if Hamas would be willing —
HARLOW: Yes.
BASKIN: — to release them.
What we do know is from the 136 hostages there are probably less than 100 that are still alive. And every day the hostages are left in Gaza is a risk to their lives either from the Israeli bombing or from executions being carried out by Hamas.
HARLOW: Our Alex Marquardt has some really fascinating reporting from overnight that I want your take on. His reporting is that Israel has proposed that Hamas’ senior leaders could leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire deal. Of course, they have failed to capture or kill any of Hamas’ top leaders. This would include Yahya Sinwar.
Do you see that happening?
BASKIN: No, not at all. This is a non-starter.
This is a leadership which is dedicated to the fight and their religious tenets preclude them ever running away or surrendering. They will go down fighting. They believe it is a religious commandment that they become martyrs for Palestine, for Islam, for Al-Quds, for Jerusalem, for Al-Aqsa.
This is not the situation that we had in 1982 where Yasser Arafat and the leaders of the PLO escaped Beirut in an agreement with Israel. This is a completely different nature of warfare and a completely ideological base of the people who are engaged in the fighting.
HARLOW: Gershon Baskin, thank you very much for being with us this morning.
