Hamas, Israel negotiate release of 34 Gaza hostages: NPR

TEL AVIV, Israel — Hamas has named 34 Israeli hostages in Gaza — including two with dual U.S. citizenship — whom it is prepared to release as part of a ceasefire deal being negotiated with Israel.

After more than six months of sporadic ceasefire talks, the offer is the most serious sign of progress toward a pause in the devastating 15-month war in Gaza, sparked by the Hamas-led ambush in the south of Israel on October 7, 2023.

The list of 34 hostages, published by a Saudi media Asharq and confirmed to NPR by a Hamas official, includes five female soldiers, five female civilians, two infants and 22 men — including dual U.S.-Israeli nationals Sagui Dekel-Chen and Keith Siegel. Some of the 34 may not be alive.

In exchange for the release of these hostages, according to the Hamas official, Israel would release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners and partially withdraw its troops from certain parts of Gaza.

Israel has agreed to this framework, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The agreement, currently being negotiated in Qatar, would only guarantee the release of a third of the hundred hostages remaining in Gaza. The young male soldiers, including Eden Alexander, who has dual US-Israeli citizenship, would remain in Gaza.

Hamas and other militant groups kidnapped 251 hostages in Gaza on October 7, 2023, according to an Israeli government count. The following month, 105 of them were freed in a hostage and prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. Several were later rescued during Israeli military operations, and the bodies of 37 hostages were recovered by Israeli troops.

Israel has not yet accepted the definitive end of its military offensive in Gaza, and Hamas will not release all the hostages until the end of the war is guaranteed.

Disclose information about hostages

Israel says it has requested the release of this same group of 34 hostages in July 2024. It classifies them as humanitarian cases, including young men with chronic illnesses and fathers.

Hamas previously said three of those named on the list – the two infants and their mother – were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza in November 2023. Israel has not confirmed the deaths.

Israel calls on Hamas to reveal which hostages on the list are still alive, in order to advance negotiations on the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange. The Hamas official said Hamas would only reveal this information in exchange for concessions from Israel, of which he did not elaborate.

An umbrella group representing the hostages’ families, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said it was “deeply shaken and distressed” by the list of 34 hostages published by Asharq because it excluded the names of hostages believed to still be alive. In a statement, the group called for a comprehensive agreement to free all the hostages.

Other stumbling blocks

Both Israeli and Hamas officials showed flexibility over the identity and number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees that Israel would release in exchange for Israeli hostages.

Remaining stumbling blocks include Hamas’ demand for a timetable to end the war, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the return of Palestinians to areas they fled during the war.

The Hamas official said the group insists that Israel accept an immediate end to the war or guarantee that it ends within a certain time frame, even if it is only a commitment to an unspecified “multi-year ceasefire.”

Even as ceasefire negotiations in Gaza continued, Hamas welcomed a Palestinian shooting that killed three Israelis traveling on a bus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday, and Israel’s finance minister said the village Palestinian neighbor should suffer the same fate as a neighborhood in northern Gaza. which Israeli forces have largely neutralized during their offensive against Hamas in recent months.

Abu Bakr Bashir reported from London.