JACK GUEZ / AFP
Demonstrators hold cut-out portraits of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, during a demonstration in Tel Aviv on January 4, 2025. (Illustrative photo)
INTERNATIONAL – La “first phase” of an agreement is already unclear. Hamas announced on Sunday January 5 that it was ready to release 34 Israeli hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip, but Israel quickly claimed that it had not received a list from the Palestinian movement.
Furthermore, Israel indicated this Monday that it had not been informed by Hamas of the conditions in which these hostages found themselves. mentioned on the list. “Israel has not yet received confirmation or response from Hamas” on this point, insisted the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A list “provided by Israel”?
A Hamas official told AFP on Sunday 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”. And that list included “all women, the sick, children and the elderly” among the Israeli hostages.
“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 list of hostages that was published in the media was not provided by Israel to Hamas, but initially by Israel to the (negotiations) mediators in July 2024”the Prime Minister’s office responded this Monday.
96 people still hostage in Gaza
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 captive in Gaza since the attack of the Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on October 7, 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, which allowed the release 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 data, 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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