The government released minutes of the cabinet decision approving the agreement but did not include the arrangements established with Hamas. Some unpublished information, like plans to let aid into Gaza, is considered to be ‘politically explosive’
Haaretz
The Prime Minister’s Office has refused to release to the public the full version of the hostage deal and cease-fire agreement signed with Hamas.
Over the weekend, the PMO released just the text of the cabinet decision approving the agreement, which provides only part of the understandings included in the deal.
Missing are the details about the humanitarian aid to be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip and Israel’s commitment to withdraw from the Philadelphi route by the 50th day of the cease-fire – issues considered to be especially politically sensitive.
The full agreement was presented to the members of the security cabinet and full cabinet on Friday before the deal was approved, said sources with knowledge of the details. The agreement has been kept confidential, along with its appendices and maps of the redeployment of Israel Defense Forces troops along the Philadelphi route and the buffer zones.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied Haaretz’s request to receive a copy of the full agreement, or to at least examine it – even though parts of it have been leaked in recent days and have appeared in the press in Israel and overseas.
The hostage release deal reached in November 2023 was also approved in a similar manner, and the only text released was that of the cabinet decision.
The text of the present cabinet decision, entitled, ‘Framework for the release of the Israeli hostages,’ provides mostly details of the timetable for the release of the hostages and the calculation of how many Palestinian prisoners will be freed in return.
As for the second and third stages of the agreement, the cabinet decision states the ‘parties will begin indirect negotiations according to Appendix B.’ Appendix B is seemingly the original agreement that’s still being kept under wraps by the cabinet secretariat.
A petition was submitted to the High Court of Justice at the beginning of the week asking the court to require the government to release the full document as well as informing the families of the hostages.
Politicians have said over the past few days that the main consideration for not publicizing the document was ‘security’ related, while the petitioners said that even though the agreement was signed indirectly with the enemy, Hamas certainly knew all of its details – and it’s not possible that it contained information that would harm national security if it was released.
Hebrew University Prof. Barak Medina, who is representing the petitioners, said that Netanyahu’s approach of ‘hiding the details of the agreement with Hamas and avoiding approving the entire agreement in the cabinet raises a suspicion that it is not based on national security considerations but rather on an attempt to evade implementing the second stage of the agreement, in which the remaining 64 hostages are supposed to be released.’
‘The government does not have the right to hide information from the Knesset and the public, certainly not from the families of the hostages, unless there is a clear security interest that justifies it,’ he said.
The cabinet ministers voted on and approved the full agreement and discussed all of its sections before the vote, said a source with knowledge of the meetings. ‘There was a broad and comprehensive discussion, and the ministers who were sitting on the fence asked to clarify every detail in the framework,’ said the source.
‘Israel doesn’t sign agreements with terrorist organizations – not with Hamas and not with Hezbollah. The parties that signed this agreement with Israel are the three mediating countries: the United States, Qatar and Egypt,’ said another source.