'Must look at full picture': Netanyahu warns ceasefire is temporary, Israel retains right to fight - video Dailymotion

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00:00We can now welcome to the program Yossi Mechelberg, who's the Senior Consulting Fellow

00:04at Chatham House's Middle East and North Africa program. Thanks for speaking to me.

00:11Pleasure, good morning.

00:12First, let's focus then on the more than 700 Palestinian prisoners who are set to be released.

00:18What kind of profile do they have?

00:21Well, this will be released, this information, later. And we assume that at this day

00:28it's not to see the big names. You know, we can't expect people like Marwan Barghouti,

00:34for instance, even in the first phase. Or, you know, other ones that's what is called

00:43with blood on their hands. So we have to wait. It will be published. But I think it's right now

00:50we'll see that, you know, the numbers of them. Remember, there are nearly 10,000 Palestinian

00:58prisoners and people detained in Israel Prison and Detention Centre. Hundreds of them are

01:06minor. Some in administrative detention. So we need to look at the full picture of this.

01:12And we're seeing reports that some of these prisoners set to be released are

01:15teenaged. How young were some of them when we went to prison? Do we know that?

01:21Yeah, young teenagers. And it varies. People can, you know, young people can be arrested for

01:27as little as throwing stones and remain in detention for a long time. I think we know that

01:35the so-called justice system when it comes to Palestinians, it's very different from the one

01:42in Israel. The very fact that you can have hundreds of people in administrative detention,

01:47which means they are not even need to be brought to judge. There are no charges pressed against

01:54them. So it creates a very difference between the justice system, between those, you know,

02:01Palestinians that have been caught and charged and proved in court that committed, you know,

02:07crime or terrorist act and those who are on the basis of very flimsy evidence.

02:14Now, the Israeli Justice Ministry said this Saturday that 30 prisoners would be released

02:19for each of the female hostages released on Sunday. It's a similar rate to the last

02:25release. Why is this the figure that they've stuck to?

02:30Unfortunately, part of this negotiation is quite morbid. It's also between life,

02:38life hostages and those unfortunately, sadly, are dead. So they have to create some formula

02:47in which both sides agree, considering that, you know, they are just under,

02:52under hostages. And there are around, as I mentioned, 10,000 prisoners and detainees

03:02to create some formula that Hamas would agree. And in this canon, we know from the history

03:08of this exchange of hostages, Israeli hostages kidnapped and prisoners, that the formula

03:16is many more Palestinians are for release for every Israeli. And this was negotiated

03:24now for months and the reach is, at the end of the day, those formulas are arbitrary.

03:31Thank you, Yossi Mekelberg, for that update for us from London.

'Must look at full picture': Netanyahu warns ceasefire is temporary, Israel retains right to fight

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