A glimmer of hope in the Middle East? Hamas has “agreed to release 34 Israeli prisoners from a list provided by Israel in the first phase of a prisoner exchange agreement,” a Hamas official told AFP, in the “first phase” of an agreement with Israel. The list of hostages likely to be released includes “all Israeli women, sick people, children and elderly people”. “Hamas and resistance groups need about a week of calm to communicate with the kidnappers and identify the [otages] dead or alive,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office 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 hostages held in Gaza since the attack of the Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on the 7th. October 2023.
105 hostages released in November 2023
Despite intense diplomatic efforts led under the aegis of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, no truce has been concluded since that of a week at the end of November 2023. This truce allowed the liberation of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
During the October 7 attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians according to a count based on official figures, 251 people were kidnapped. A total of 96 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
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