Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says, for its part, that it has not received this list of names.
A Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist movement was ready to free 34 Israeli hostages, held captive in the Gaza Strip, during the “first phase” of an agreement with Israel.
Hamas has “agreed to release 34 Israeli prisoners from a list provided by Israel in the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal”said this official, specifying that the list included “all Israeli women, sick people, children and elderly people”.. “Hamas and resistance groups need about a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify the (hostages) dead or alive”he added. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that “contrary to what has been reported, Hamas has still not provided a list of hostages”.
Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel resumed this weekend in Qatar with a view to an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of people held in Gaza since the attack of the Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on the 7th. October 2023. A total of 96 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army. On Saturday, Hamas released a video of 19-year-old Liri Elbag captured in October 2023 while she was doing her military service in southern Israel.
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