- It is the Gazans who paid the price for Hamas, not Hamas itself. The war casualties that the Hamas militants are incurring are a consequence of combat, not the price for invading Israel , not for taking hostages, and not for starting and conducting the war in violation of international laws and treaties. Hamas has yet to pay the price for that.
- As of today, nearly 2,000 Palestinians prisoners have been released in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages, eight of them murdered prior to exchange (https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/israel-hamas-ceasefire-1st-phase-nears-end-heres-how-many-hostages-are-still-in-gaza-7791933). The names, titles, offenses and sentences of 737 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds with convictions for murder, have been published by Israel's Ministry of Justice, as opposed to those detainees under the jurisdiction of IDF released in Gaza (https://www.gov.il/he/Departments/DynamicCollectors/is-db?skip=0). If so inclined, you can google translate each one of the 737 records to get better acquainted with their identities and crimes). There is nothing speculative about these records that list hundreds of convicted terrorists, many serving life sentences for being convicted of crimes which include murder. The "agreed upon number" mentioned in the article refers not only to the random count of people Hamas demands to be released, but the list of the names of those people.
And this happened already, with not a single living Hamas member being held accountable for their crimes. Current demands of Hamas will only increase these numbers. Or else.
Here is how BBC reported on Hamas rejecting further negotiations:
Hamas has formally rejected Israel's latest ceasefire offer, saying it is prepared to immediately negotiate a deal that would see the release of all remaining hostages in return for an end to the war and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
In a video statement, Hamas's chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, said: "We will not accept partial deals that serve [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's political agenda."
-snip-
"Netanyahu and his government use partial agreements as a cover for their political agenda, which is based on continuing the war of extermination and starvation, even if the price is sacrificing all his prisoners [hostages]," Hayya said.
He added the group was "ready to immediately negotiate a deal to swap all hostages with an agreed number of Palestinians jailed by Israel" and end the war.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8gzm0p1y8o
The Hamas chief negotiator had explicitly conditioned further negotiations on these demands while rejecting any further participation in negotiations: swap all hostages and end the war. Just as I stated their position in my post: return to the pre-October status quo and get hundreds of terrorists released as a bonus, while paying no price for their war crimes. Or else, no negotiations.
If this is not a pre-condition, I don't know what is.
= new reply since forum marked as read