“There is progress on the issues under discussion between Israel and Hamas, which also led to the authorization of the delegation’s departure for Doha a few days ago,” he said on Monday. Can a senior Israeli official regarding the negotiations. However, he stressed: “We are not yet at the time to ‘finalize’ the agreement for the release of the hostages”, he however tempered.
“This progress does not constitute a breakthrough in the negotiations, but the continuation of intensive negotiations aimed at initiating the release of the hostages and creating the necessary dynamic for their return,” he said.
Note that Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Monday morning with the head of the Red Cross delegation in Israel, Julien Lérisson, and discussed recent developments on this subject.
Previously, an Israeli source said that contrary to the Prime Minister’s Office’s denial, Hamas had transmitted a list of hostages without specifying which ones were alive. The Saudi channel ASharqas well as the BBC published the list, but the condition of the hostages on it is not known.
This is in fact the list that Israel transmitted to the mediators last July and that Hamas had approved. The agreement itself provides in its first phase for the release of all hostages on the lists, whether alive or not, but with different compensation for a living hostage and a dead hostage. The Prime Minister’s Office also clarified that “Israel has not received any confirmation or comment from Hamas regarding the status of the hostages on the list.”
