Multiple sources from Hamas and other Palestinian factions have told Drop Site that their central concern in these negotiations was that handing over all Israeli captives would remove nearly all of their leverage if it did not include a complete Israeli withdrawal. Israel has, as a matter of policy, systematically violated its ceasefire agreements with Hamas and also with Lebanon. In entering into these negotiations, Hamas negotiators accepted they were engaging in a high-stakes gamble.

“This is a risk, but we trusted President Trump to be the guarantor of all the commitments made,” said Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader, in an interview with Drop Site on Monday. “Had there been no commitment from the American president, we would never have agreed to take the risk, because we do not trust Netanyahu or his extremist right‑wing team in the current Israeli government.”

The Palestinian negotiators, after consultations with a range of factions, agreed to a deal that will keep Israeli forces in Gaza even after all Israeli captives are handed over to Israel. Throughout the negotiations over the past several months, Hamas has insisted it would not enter into a deal that did not include the complete withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces. “This is something they were not able to move,” the source said. While the exact lines that Israeli forces will redeploy to as part of the exchange of captives are still being worked out, Israeli forces will remain entrenched in Gaza.

That is an enormous risk but when your people are going to be starved to death I guess there wasn’t much of a choice.