Israel expects Hamas to provide a list of live hostages held in the Gaza Strip in order to make progress in talks on a proposed prisoner release agreement, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing an Israeli security source.
Some progress has been made in the talks, but significant challenges remain before an agreement can be reached, the source said. According to him, Israel is still waiting for Hamas to provide a list of live hostages that the radicals plan to release as part of the deal under discussion. Without this list, it will be extremely difficult to make progress, the source added. Delegations from both sides are continuing to discuss details of a possible deal in Qatar.
As reported by The Times of Israel, the first stage of a potential deal between Israel and Hamas would involve the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for children, female soldiers, the elderly and the sick held in Gaza. According to some reports, Israel has demanded the release of 34 hostages in the first stage, including 11 people whom Hamas considers to be soldiers.
Last week, the Israeli news outlet Ynet, citing a senior official, reported that most of the details of a possible deal had already been agreed upon, but the main dispute was over the number of hostages to be released in the first stage. The official added that the talks are now “focused on the number and identity of the hostages,” the news source reported.
Several rounds of talks over the past year to release Hamas prisoners have reached an impasse. The parties have failed to reach an extension to the agreement reached in late November 2023, under which 105 hostages were released after a week-long ceasefire. Israel believes that 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023, are still in Gaza. In the past 14 months, the Israeli army has rescued eight hostages and returned the bodies of 38 people.
At least 50 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, Qatari television channel Al Jazeera reported.
The Israeli army shelled a tent camp for displaced people in the Al Mawasi area west of Khan Yunis. The Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip came under heavy fire, the television channel reported.