Hamas said it was ready this Sunday to release several Israeli hostages “in the first phase of a prisoner exchange agreement.”
The Palestinian movement claims to rely on a list provided by Israel, which would include women and children.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office, however, indicated that it had still not received a list from Hamas.
While indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel resumed this Saturday and Sunday in Qatar with a view to an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, the Palestinian movement affirmed on Sunday that it was ready to release 34 Israelis held captive during the “first phase” of an agreement with Israel.
A Hamas official told AFP that the Islamist group had “agreed to release 34 Israeli prisoners from a list provided by Israel in the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal”. A list that includes “all women, the sick, children and the elderly” among the hostages, specifies this official, who requested anonymity.
“Identify dead or alive hostages”
“Hamas and resistance groups need about a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify the (hostages) dead or alive”added the manager. For its part, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a statement that “Contrary to what has been reported, Hamas has still not provided a list of hostages“.
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, which allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Among the main sticking points so far have been the permanent nature or not of a ceasefire and the governance of Gaza after the war, Israel categorically opposing Hamas being able to rule the territory again.
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