HOW THE HOSTAGE CRISIS COULD END

Inside the secret talks between Hamas leaders and Israel

Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City, October 7, 2023. Photo by Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages.

The Israeli military and political leadership are beginning to see the results of a carefully planned end game that will be murderous—there is no other word for it—to the members of the Hamas military now being hunted down in the tunnels and rubble of Gaza City. The orders are to shoot to kill on sight. The collapse of the military wing of Hamas has given the group’s political leadership, who claim to have not been directly involved in the planning for the October 7 massacre, a chance to demonstrate their good will and save their own lives by arranging for Israeli hostages to be transferred to a basement in the besieged al-Shifa hospital, long a stronghold of Hamas. Some Israeli officials fear that time is running out because it’s not known how long the air in the tunnels will be breathable.