Hamas is said to have agreed to release five Israeli hostages in exchange for a 50-day ceasefire. The extremist group is releasing a hostage video to appeal for his freedom.
Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya said on Saturday that extremist groups had expressed their willingness to release five hostages on Id al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday.
“Two days ago we received a proposal from an Egyptian and Qatar mediator. We treated it positively and accepted it,” Khalil al-Heiya said in a speech on television.
“We hope that (Israel) occupation will not be undermined,” said Haiya, who leads Hamas negotiation team in indirect consultations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Hamas Israeli War in Gaza, which exploded in October 2023. ”
“After a series of consultations based on the proposals received from the mediator, Israel cooperated fully with the US to convey the counter proposal,” the office of Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Media reports cite Israeli officials say Netanyahu’s government has argued for the release of 10 of the 24 hostages believed to be still alive in Gaza. Of the 251 hostages filmed during Hamas’ 2023 attacks on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 people who say Israeli forces have died. Hamas is reportedly open to releasing her body.
In exchange, Israel is set to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Halil added that Hamas’ weapons are “red lines” and that they will not disarm them as long as Israeli forces occupy Gaza.
Israel is not actively involved in negotiations for ceasefire contracts taking place in Doha between Egypt, Qatar and Hamas, but efforts are increasingly coming to an agreement before Eid al-Fitr.
The news comes three days after security sources told Reuters that Egypt, one of the mediators of Gaza’s ceasefire negotiations, had received positive signs from Israel about a new ceasefire proposal, including a transitional period.
Last week, Israel resumed its military operations in Gaza, shattering the calmness of a ceasefire with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 921 people were killed in new assaults.
On Saturday, Hamas’ armed wings released footage showing Israeli hostages in Gaza calling on the government to secure his release.
Hostages and Missing Family Forum Campaign Group identified the man as an El Canabo Bot who was accused of from a music festival location in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
The footage lasts more than three minutes, showing Bobot speaks in Hebrew, repeatedly raising his hands in despair as he advocates for freedom.
The Guardian could not confirm when or where the video was recorded on the Gaza Strip.
In the clip, Bobot said the gunfire could take his life and pleaded for his wife and son to be reunited.
In another development, Israeli forces confirmed that they fired fire on an ambulance in the Gaza Strip after identifying it as a “suspecting vehicle” on Saturday. Hamas accused the attack as a “war crime” that killed at least one person.
The incident took place last Sunday in the Tar al-Sultan district in Rafa city in southern Rafa, near the Egyptian border.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 50,082 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and another 113,408 have been injured since the start of the war.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this report.
