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Israel said on Monday that it had not been informed by Hamas of the conditions in which the 34 hostages held captive in Gaza find themselves. The Palestinian movement said the day before it was ready to release them as part of a possible agreement.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas resumed this weekend in Qatar, with a view to an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages, while the two parties in conflict accused each other of failing the negotiations.
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 agreement.”
“The list of hostages that was published in the media was not provided by Israel to Hamas, but initially by Israel to the mediators (of the negotiations) in July 2024,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Monday .
“Israel has not yet received confirmation or response from Hamas on the conditions in which the hostages mentioned on the list are found,” he added.
“A week of calm” necessary
The Hamas official indicated that the list of 34 hostages, since released by certain media, included “all women, the sick, children and the elderly” among the Israeli hostages.
“Hamas and the resistance groups need about a week of calm to communicate with the kidnappers and identify the (hostages) dead or alive,” he added.
Still no truce
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.
The new round of negotiations in Doha comes about two weeks before the January 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has already put pressure on Hamas.
The current head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, said Monday that he was “confident” that an agreement could be found, even if “the finish line” might not be crossed “in the next two weeks”.
According to Israeli media, the head of Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, David Barnea, was to join negotiators sent by his country in Doha on Monday.
Gaza governance
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.
The Families Forum, the main association of relatives of Israeli hostages, called for an agreement to be reached as quickly as possible for their release: “There is no more time to lose.”
Children killed
While awaiting a possible agreement, violence continues in the Gaza Strip, where two children were killed by an Israeli drone strike in the south of the territory, local emergency services said.
The Israeli army announced for its part that three “projectiles” had been fired towards Israel from northern Gaza, without causing any injuries.
Israeli emergency services also reported three dead and eight injured, including one seriously, in shootings on a bus and vehicles near a village in the occupied West Bank, where violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has exploded. since the start of the war in Gaza.
More than 45,000 people, mainly civilians, were killed in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
