Hamas said to okay list of 34 hostages to be freed, but refuses to detail who’s alive

Hamas was said Sunday evening to have agreed with Israel on a list of 34 hostages to be released in the first phase of a potential ceasefire deal, but the Palestinian terror group was refusing to detail who of them was alive, according to multiple reports citing Hamas and Israeli officials.

After a Hamas official was cited by the Reuters news agency as claiming the terror group had supplied such a list, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly denied it and said that “as of now, Hamas has not given a list of hostages.”

Reuters later said the Hamas official had provided the outlet a copy of the list showing the names of 34 hostages it agreed to set free in any possible ceasefire deal with Israel. However, the agency didn’t say whose names were on it.

Several subsequent reports appeared to clear up the contradiction between the versions given by Hamas and Israel, saying that rather than supplying a list of names, Hamas had indicated that a list of 34 names sent by Jerusalem several months ago was acceptable to it, but that Israel viewed the information as incomplete and not allowing further progress.

The Walla news site reported, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official, that Hamas had approved the list in exchange for an “appropriate price” — meaning the number of Palestinian security prisoners to be freed as part of the deal — but refused to say who was alive and who wasn’t, making it impossible to determine which price would be appropriate.

The AFP news agency reported similar details, quoting an unnamed Hamas official who demanded a weeklong truce in order for the terror group to determine who on the list was alive.

“Hamas has agreed to release 34 Israeli prisoners from a list presented by Israel as part of the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal,” the official said, adding however that Hamas needed time to determine their condition.

“Hamas has agreed to release the 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead,” the official said. “However, the group needs a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead.”

Israel is highly unlikely to agree to halt the fighting for a week without a finalized deal.

Negotiators are looking to achieve a halt to the 15-month-old war, together with the release of 100 hostages still held captive by Gazan terror groups.

The first phase of a three-stage potential deal would reportedly see 23 female and older captives go free in the first stage, in addition to 11 men under the age of 50 who are believed to be in poor health, including civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed who have been held in the Strip for around a decade.

As of last week, Hamas had been reported to be refusing to release 12 of those 34 hostages, deeming any man between the ages of 18 and 50 a “soldier.”

The Hamas official who spoke to Reuters on Sunday insisted that any deal was contingent upon the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire, claiming that there had been no progress from the Israeli side in this regard.

Netanyahu has insisted throughout multiple rounds of failed negotiations that Israel will not commit to a complete end to the war and has said that the fight against Hamas will resume at the conclusion of any deal that is reached.

Multiple reports said Sunday that White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk was already in Doha, Qatar for the negotiations, adding that Mossad chief David Barnea was expected to head there as well. Channel 12 news said Barnea would arrive on Monday or Tuesday.

Netanyahu has held a series of security discussions in recent days on the hostage talks, with Channel 12 reporting that Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer were all in attendance.

The network added that Israel is aiming for US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20 as the target deadline for an agreement.

The Walla and Axios news sites reported Sunday that Dermer is expected to travel to the US this week to meet senior officials from the White House and Trump’s incoming administration.

The Saudi Al-Hadath news outlet reported, citing sources from the Israeli delegation to Qatar, that Jerusalem could agree to grant Hamas leaders immunity and refrain from targeting them abroad if the group agrees to relinquish its governance of the Gaza Strip and move abroad.

The report added that in place of the terror group, Gaza would be controlled by “an independent Palestinian body,” the report stated, in coordination with the international community. An international peacekeeping force, similar to UNIFIL in Lebanon, would be established in this scenario and the US would be responsible for overseeing the implementation of such an agreement.
‘There was no neglect’

At a meeting attended by some hostages’ relatives last week, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told the families that he disagrees with the assertion that the government neglected its duty to Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led onslaught that killed over 1,200 and resulted in the kidnapping of 251 hostages, sparking the war.

“There was no neglect. The State of Israel did not neglect,” said Smotrich, according to Channel 12, which added that the hostages’ relatives were stunned by his statement.

A hostage’s family member rejected the minister’s assertion, saying: “What do you mean? My daughter was abandoned by the State of Israel. She was kidnapped from within the state’s territory.”

However, Smotrich pushed back, insisting that “there was no abandonment here. The State of Israel did not abandon.”

Smotrich was also said to have asserted that he would not agree to any deal to return the bodies of slain hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, with the outlet quoting the far-right minister as saying: “I don’t intend to pay a price for bodies. No terrorist will be returned for a body. They will be brought back in operations.”

Ninety-six of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas in the October 7 assault remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

Source » timesofisrael.com