Israel wants to know if the Hamas hostages, held captive in the Gaza Strip, are dead or alive.
The Hebrew State estimated, Monday January 6, that the Palestinian Islamist movement knew “precisely” who among the 34 hostages is still alive.
Last weekend, Hamas said it was ready to release them in the first phase of a possible agreement for a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
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Israel and Hamas at war
Who is still alive? Who is no longer? Israel affirmed, Monday January 6, that Hamas knows “precisely who was dead or alive” among the 34 hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip. “They know precisely where the hostages are”declared Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer. “Gaza is not very big.”
A leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement told AFP on Sunday January 5 that they needed “about a week of calm” to communicate with the various kidnappers and “identify the dead or the living”.
Indirect negotiations in progress
The indirect negotiations which resumed this weekend in Qatar between the Jewish state and Hamas seem for the moment to focus on the release of hostages, one of the conditions for a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel says it was not informed of the state of health of the 34 hostages, “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 since that of a week at the end of November 2023, which allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
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Gaza: Hamas says it is ready to release 34 Israeli hostages in the “first phase” of an agreement
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 “confident” that an agreement can 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, with Israel categorically opposing Hamas being able to rule the enclave again. Palestinian. “If Hamas demands an end to the war, as it has from the beginning and continues to do, then we must end the war to bring back the hostages”asked Yotam Cohen, brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen.
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