Hamas prepared for ‘serious’ hostage release
Hamas has said it is prepared for a “serious” hostage release following US pressure to accept a new Israeli proposal.
It is understood that both sides have softened their positions, putting them on course for a potential deal to release approximately nine or 10 hostages in return for a new ceasefire in Gaza.
The apparent movement in negotiations in the last 24 hours follows weeks of deadlock since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18.
The operation has killed more than 1,500, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and prompted despair among the families of the remaining 59 hostages, of whom 24 are thought to be alive.
Israel has seized significant territory in Gaza during that time, carving military corridors deep into the enclave, expanding its buffer zones and absorbing the entire southern city of Rafah into the no-go area.
Recent discussions are believed to have stalled over the number of hostages to be released as part of a new deal.
Israel reportedly demanded at least 11, in return for a ceasefire and other concessions, whereas Hamas were said to have offered only five.
Late on Sunday, the Saudi news outlet al-Arabiya reported unnamed sources as saying there was “initial agreement” from the terror group to increase the number of living hostages it would consider handing over.
The report also suggested that Hamas was prepared to submit a detailed list of hostages and agree to a two-phase release schedule.
Phase two negotiations
It came as a spokesman for the group, Taher al-Nunu, told a different Saudi channel, Asharq, that Hamas was prepared for a “serious” prisoner exchange.
Crucially, the Egyptian-mediated outline agreement appears to be based on active Israeli participation in talks, rather than one generated by third-parties.
On Monday, the Tikvah Forum, a group of hostage families to the right of the main representative body, reported that Benjamin Netyanyhu had told the parents of hostage Eitan Mor that Israel was now aiming for the return of 10 living hostages, as an initial phase of a new deal.
This appeared to be corroborated by Lebanese outlet Al-Mayadeen, which quoted a Hamas official.
According to the report, the proposal demands that US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander be included among the 10, in exchange for a 45-day ceasefire.
During this time, aid would be allowed into Gaza and Israeli troops would withdraw to their positions as of March 18.
Mr Alexander, a 21-year-old IDF soldier who grew up in New Jersey, has been a key focus for the Trump administration.
The administration is said to have assured Hamas that it would pressure Israel to end the war upon the return of the hostages.
Aid would reportedly be allowed back into Gaza as part of a new deal, and Palestinian prisoners would be released, although Israel was said to be pushing for a smaller ratio of hostages to prisoners.
Hamas stopped releasing hostages under the previous deal after Mr Netanyahu’s government refused to engage seriously in so-called phase two negotiations.
‘Partial release a dangerous concept’
In outline, the phase envisaged a complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza and an end to the war, in return for the remaining hostages.
Israel said it could not agree to a situation which left Hamas intact in Gaza and risked another atrocity like the massacre of October 7.
Since resuming hostilities, Israeli ministers have said that putting Hamas under military pressure, plus taking significant chunks of territory, was the best chance of getting them to agree to further releases.
Both the Tikvah Forum and the more mainstream Hostages and Missing Families Forum have sounded alarm at the prospect of a new two-stage release deal.
Both want to see all the living hostages released simultaneously as part of a comprehensive deal to end the war.
The current proposal would waste “precious time” and, said a spokesman for the later group.
“While families wait and hope for the release of each and every hostage from Hamas captivity, the reality is that partial releases are a dangerous concept,” the forum said in a statement.
“Government officials continue to speak of increasing military pressure to free all the hostages, yet in practice negotiations are stuck, hostages’ lives are at risk, and fallen soldiers’ bodies are disappearing.”
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