Hamas would have agreed to release five living Israeli hostages in exchange for a 50-day ceasefire, while the militant group published a video of a hostage appealing to its freedom.
Hamas chief Khalil Al-Hayya, reportedly declared that the militant group expressed his desire to release the five hostages on the Holiday Eid al-Fitr, which begins on Sunday, after a proposal that she received two days ago from Egypt and Qatar, reported Reuters.
“Two days ago, we received a proposal from the mediators in Egypt and Qatar. We treated it positively and accepted it,” said Khalil al-Hayya in a television speech.
“We hope that the (Israeli) occupation will not undermine Hayya, who heads the Hamas negotiation team in indirect talks aimed at obtaining a cease-fire in the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza which broke out in October 2023.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after “a series of consultations in accordance with the proposal received from mediators, Israel has transmitted a counter-proposition in the middle of coordination with the United States”.
The Netanyahu government insists on the release of 10 of the 24 hostages that are still alive in Gaza, according to media reports citing officials in Israel. Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack on Hamas in 2023 against Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 which, according to the Israeli army, died. Hamas would be open to the release of their bodies.
In exchange, Israel is supposed to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Khalil added that Hamas’ weapons are a “red line” and that it will not disarm until the Israeli army occupies Gaza.
Israel does not actively participate in negotiations for a cease-fire agreement that takes place in Doha between Egypt, Qatar and Hamas, despite increasing efforts to reach an agreement before Eid Al-Fitr.
The news occurred three days after security sources told Reuters that Egypt, one of the mediators of the cease-fire negotiations in Gaza, had received positive indications from Israel on a new cease-fire proposal which would include a transitional phase.
Last week, Israel resumed its military operation in Gaza, breaking the calm of the ceasefire with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 921 people were killed in the renewed aggression.
On Saturday, the Hamas armed wing published images showing an Israeli hostage in Gaza calling on the government to secure its release, the second video of this type shared by the militant group in a few days.
The campaign group forum of the hostages and disappeared identified the man as being Elkana Bohbot, who was removed from the site of a music festival in southern Israel during the attack on Hamas on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war.
The images last more than three minutes and shows Bohbot speaking in Hebrew and raising his hands several times in despair of despair while he pleads for his freedom.
The Guardian could not check when or where in the Gaza Strip, the video was recorded.
In the clip, Bohbot said that the bombardment could cost him his life and pleaded to find his wife and son.
In a separate development, the Israeli army admitted on Saturday that it had shot ambulances in the Gaza Strip after having identified them as “suspicious vehicles”. Hamas condemned the attack as a “war crime” which killed at least one person.
The incident took place last Sunday in the Tal Al-Sultan district in the southern city of Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that at least 50,082 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza and that 113,408 others have been injured since the war.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this report.
