Towards an agreement between Israel and Hamas ? A leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement says he is ready to release 34 hostages

Vers un accord entre le Hamas et Israël ? ILLUSTRATION dpa – Ilia Yefimovich

A Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist movement was ready to release 34 Israeli hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip during the “first phase” of an agreement with Israel.

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Hamas has “agreed to release 34 Israeli prisoners from a list provided by Israel in the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal,” the official said, adding that the list included “all Israeli women, sick people, children and elderly” among the hostages.

“Hamas and the resistance groups need about a week of calm to communicate with the kidnappers and identify the (hostages) dead or alives,” he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that “contrary to what has been reported, Hamas has still not provided a list of hostages.”

Indirect negotiations

Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel resumed this weekend in Qatar with a view to agreeing on a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza since the attack of the Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023.

Despite intense diplomatic efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, no truce has been concluded since the one-week truce that took place at the end of November 2023.

This truce allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

During the attack of October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians according to a count based on official figures, 251 people were kidnapped. In total, 96 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom have been declared dead by the army.