Despite an almost complete lack of progress in the stalled ceasefire talks in Gaza, not all of the players involved have thrown up their hands entirely. Even the White House, desperately seeking a way to make Joe Biden look like the heroic peacebringer in this quagmire has been scaling back expectations recently. Yet Israel's Coordinator for Hostages and the Missing, Gal Hirsch, is still pitching ideas to achieve some progress. This weekend, he told CNN that he had hatched a plan that he wanted to pitch directly to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. If Sinwar agreed to release all of the remaining hostages peacefully, Hirsch said that he would assure him personally of safe passage out of the Gaza Strip as soon as all of the hostages were accounted for. While this would definitely be an easier "gift to offer" as compared to the full withdrawal of all IDF forces from the Strip, what possible motivation would Sinwar have for accepting such a proposal?

An Israeli official has floated the possibility of offering Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage out of Gaza, once all remaining hostages held in the Palestinian territory are released.

Israel’s Coordinator for Hostages and the Missing Gal Hirsch told CNN’s Jessica Dean on Sunday that if all remaining 101 hostages are returned, “I even believe that we will agree to build safe passage to the chief terrorist, the new Hitler, Sinwar – safe passage to him and whoever he wants to join him out of Gaza.”

Hirsch said those conditions, along with Gaza being “demilitarized and deradicalized,” could help recover Gaza and end the war.

Yesterday, Hirsch held additional interviews where he suggested that Bibi Netanyahu's government had already been made aware of the offer and would consider it if the hostages could all be accounted for. He also suggested that Israel would be open to releasing their remaining Palestinian prisoners. 

There are many complicating factors involved in such a potential deal, few of which are addressed in these brief media leaks regarding the proposed deal. First of all, no official responses have been received from the other players involved. Even if Sinwar were to show up on camera tomorrow saying he's agreed to the deal, that doesn't mean that anyone else in his organization would be required to agree, nor does it create some sort of unbreakable commitment on Israel's part.

Even more importantly, Yahya Sinwar isn't just another random Hamas leader. He became the designated replacement for Ismail Haniyeh shortly after he was blown up while hiding out in Iran. ("I specifically requested a room without a bomb, sir.") Sinwar has also been identified as the chief architect of the October 7 terror attacks against Israel. The United States has specifically leveled charges against him related to the initial attacks and the taking of American hostages. On everyone's list of bad guys in Gaza, Sinwar is near the top of the list. Letting him simply walk out unmolested would be a very large ask.

This offer could also be seen as a way to put a huge target on Sinwar's back among his own people The offer doesn't include letting all of Hamas run free into the wild. They are offering a safe escape route to Sinwar, "his family, whoever wants to join him." (That's a quote from Hirsch.) So they would allow the chief villain to walk free with his family and friends while the rest of his militants remain stuck in the tunnels? A rumor like that could wind up getting somebody killed, not that it would be much of a loss for us.

It's not that I'm turning up my nose at Hirsch's proposal. Every decent person wants to see all of the hostages who somehow remain alive released. If this is a way to make that happen, I will be more than ready to sign off on it. The problem is that it simply doesn't sound practical and there are many active players on Israel's side who will likely find this to be far too large of a pill to swallow. While I admire the overarching goal and intents here, it still seems likely that we're going to wind up requiring a more practical and politically unpopular resolution, likely involving finding and killing off all of the remaining Hamas militants.