Latest News from Gaza: Hamas Offers to Release All Hostages under Two Conditions

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It has been 28 days since the war resumed in Gaza, and Israeli airstrikes continue relentlessly across the territory. However, Hamas is attempting to open a path toward a ceasefire.

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On Monday, Hamas official Taher al-Nounou said that the Palestinian movement is ready to release all Israeli hostages in exchange for a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’s negotiation delegation, led by the head of the movement in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, held several meetings on Sunday in Cairo with Egyptian officials involved in the negotiation file, alongside Qatari officials. Egypt and Qatar, both mediators in the truce talks, are working to bridge the gap between Hamas and Israel to end the crisis and establish a ceasefire.

Taher al-Nounou, media advisor to the head of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP: “We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious swap deal, a halt to the war, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the entry of humanitarian aid.”

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He accused Israel of obstructing the agreement, stating, “The problem is not the number of captives, but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the ceasefire implementation, and continuing the war.”

Al-Nounou stressed that Hamas “has told the mediators of the need for guarantees to compel the occupation to implement the agreement.”

He added that Hamas “has responded positively and flexibly to the proposals presented in the negotiations for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange.”

According to him, Israel “wants to retrieve its captives without moving to the second-phase issues, which involve a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal from Gaza.”

A source familiar with the matter told AFP that the Hamas delegation “ended its meetings with Egyptian and Qatari officials in Cairo without any real progress.”

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New Proposal

Meanwhile, the Israeli news site Ynet reported on Monday that a new proposal had been submitted to Hamas.

Under this agreement, the movement would release ten living hostages in exchange for U.S. guarantees that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire.

The first phase of the ceasefire agreement began on January 19 and involved several rounds of hostage-prisoner exchanges. However, after two months, the agreement collapsed.

Mediators’ efforts to reach a new truce have stalled due to disagreements over the number of hostages Hamas would release, the terms of a permanent ceasefire, and Israel’s full withdrawal from the territory.

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Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip following an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza announced that at least 1,574 Palestinians had been killed since Israel resumed airstrikes and military operations on March 18, bringing the total death toll since the war began to 50,944 Palestinians.

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