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Lastly, 5 years and 4 months after Mr. Shalit was captured, their again channel bore fruit.
Mr. Shalit was launched in October 2011, in change for greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The ultimate deal was overseen by David Meidan, a senior Israeli intelligence officer. However in accordance with Mr. Meidan, it could not have been attainable with out the years of conversations between Mr. Baskin and Mr. Hamad.
“The important thing phrase is belief,” Mr. Meidan mentioned in an interview. “That they had belief between them. Ghazi Hamad trusted Gershon.”
Within the years since, the 2 males remained in contact, attempting unsuccessfully to barter subsequent hostage swaps and making an attempt to forge a long-term truce. When a journalist for The New York Instances sought to fulfill Mr. Hamad throughout a comparatively calm interval in early 2021, it was Mr. Baskin who secured the interview.
Even after Oct. 7, the 2 males talked, discussing the destiny of the hostages Hamas had kidnapped that day.
However one thing had modified, Mr. Baskin mentioned.
As soon as able to criticizing Hamas, Mr. Hamad now appeared in denial concerning the extent of the group’s atrocities, Mr. Baskin mentioned.
By Oct. 22, Mr. Hamad had begun to publicly describe the assaults as a pure response to Israeli aggression.
“What do you anticipate the Palestinians to do?” Mr. Hamad requested in an interview with The Instances that day, reeling off an inventory of actions taken by Israel — together with its continued occupation of the West Financial institution — that he mentioned justified Hamas’s violence.
Requested whether or not he feared that his angle may cost him his relationship with Mr. Baskin, Mr. Hamad appeared to stumble momentarily.
“Say once more?” he mentioned on the point out of Mr. Baskin. “What?”
Then he regained his composure — and doubled down.
Inside per week, Mr. Hamad had known as for Israel’s annihilation and Mr. Baskin had ended their relationship.
Contacted once more by The Instances, Mr. Hamad declined to remark intimately on their falling out or why he had hardened his place.
Azzam Tamimi, a historian of Hamas who is aware of Mr. Hamad properly, mentioned that Mr. Hamad may need been shocked by the destruction brought on by Israel’s counterattack. Though Mr. Hamad had left Gaza for Lebanon weeks earlier than the battle, a lot of his family members and colleagues are nonetheless contained in the enclave.
“All of the sudden, he misplaced relations, he misplaced a lot of his buddies,” Mr. Tamimi mentioned. “In all probability that’s the difficulty.”
Then once more, Mr. Hamad was by no means as average as his interlocutors needed to imagine, Mr. Tamimi mentioned. By calling for Israel’s destruction, “He was actually expressing honest emotions,” Mr. Tamimi mentioned.
“No person needs to be beneath the phantasm that somebody that senior in Hamas is prepared to acknowledge Israel’s proper to exist,” Mr. Tamimi added.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
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