ISRAELI ACTIVIST: There Was A Deal On The Table Before Hamas Leader Was Assassinated

Adel Hana / Associated Press

Hours before Israel assassinated top Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari, he had received a draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which “included mechanisms for maintaining the cease-fire in the case of a flare-up between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip,” according to a prominent Israeli peace activist.

Gershon Baskin, who helped negotiate the release of Gilad Shalit — the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas —told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that ”this blood could have been spared. Those who made the decision must be judged by the voters, but to my regret they will get more votes because of this.”

From Haaretz:

“He was in line to die, not an angel and not a righteous man of peace,” Baskin said of Jabari and of his feelings in the wake of the killing, “but his assassination also killed the possibility of achieving a truce and also the Egyptian mediators’ ability to function. After the assassination I spoke to the people in Israel angrily and they said to me: We’ve heard you and we are calling to ask if you have heard anything form the Egyptians or from Gaza.”

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