“They know precisely who is alive and who is dead,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said. “They know exactly where the hostages are. Gaza is not very big.”
A Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Islamist group needed “about a week of calm” to communicate with the various kidnappers of the hostages and “identify the dead or the alive”.
The indirect negotiations which resumed this weekend in Qatar between Israel and Hamas seem for the moment to focus on the release of hostages, one of the conditions for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Israel says it has not been informed of the state of health of the 34 hostages mentioned by Hamas — “all women, the sick, children and the elderly.”
Despite intense diplomatic efforts led under the aegis of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, no truce has been concluded in Gaza 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.
– Violence in the West Bank –
In another Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank, Israel announced that three Israelis were killed Monday morning in an attack near the village of al-Funduq.
The army said gunmen had “opened fire on a bus and civilian vehicles” and that a “manhunt” was still underway to apprehend them.
“We will find the vile assassins and settle accounts with them and with anyone who helped them. No one will go unpunished,” responded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has exploded in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.
In the coastal strip besieged and devastated by 15 months of war, Gaza Civil Defense reported on Monday at least 16 deaths, including several children, in several Israeli strikes.
The Israeli army announced for its part that three “projectiles” had been fired towards Israel from northern Gaza, without causing any injuries.
– “No more time to waste” –
The new round of talks 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 on 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”.
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, urged the government to obtain their release as quickly as possible: “There is no more time to lose.”
The unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
That day, 251 people were kidnapped. Among them, 96 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
At least 45,854 people, mainly civilians, were killed in the Israeli military campaign of reprisals in Gaza, including 49 in the space of 24 hours, according to the report published Monday by the Hamas Ministry of Health.
