Senior Israeli officials: Hamas will try to leverage the release of prisoners to strengthen itself in Judea and Samaria
According to senior security sources, Hamas understands that it has lost the campaign in the Gaza Strip and is preparing to limit its losses and get ready for the next phase — which, from its perspective, is opening a new terror campaign in Judea and Samaria, during which it plans further massacres in communities in Judea and Samaria and along the seam line.
Those sources say one of the demands Hamas will insist on in negotiations over implementing the Trump plan, if it ultimately agrees to it, is the release of the “major” terrorists from Israeli prisons, for two main reasons:
a. An attempt to present the end of the campaign in Gaza as a “victory” and an achievement by emptying Israeli prisons of terrorists and freeing many perpetrators regarded as “terror symbols,” whom Israel refused to free in previous deals.