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What is the real Hamas by Joshua Lifer?

In late October 2023, the veteran Israeli peace activist Gershron Baskin published an open letter denouncing a man he had long called a friend.

Grazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official. Baskin, an architect of the deal that freed the Israeli soldier Gilad Charlotte from Hamas captivity in 2011,

is one of the only Israeli citizens who has maintained consistent contact with the leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Hamad, a former journalist with a degree in veterinary medicine,

was also involved in the Shalit negotiations and served as deputy foreign minister in the 2012 Hamas government.

Prior to the 7th of October attacks, for more than a decade and a half,

Hamad and Baskin had exchanged frequent phone calls and text messages. These mainly

concerned negotiations around prisoner swap deals and sometimes the

possibility of a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas. The pair developed a warm working relationship based on

...