A newspaper said,Washington PostThe American newspaper said that Hamas has agreed in principle while Israel is considering a proposal to release at least 50 women and children from among about 240 foreign and Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations.
In exchange for the hostages, Israel would agree to stop fighting for three to five days, increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, and release an unspecified number of women and children held in Israeli prisons.
Amid reports that agreement on at least some components of the deal would be forthcoming, US officials and other interested parties spent most of Wednesday awaiting word from Israel, where internal discussions were said to be ongoing, according to the newspaper.
Senior officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration said this week that the United States is engaged in “hour-by-hour” negotiations over the release of the hostages with Israel and the government of Qatar, which acts as a mediator for Hamas.
But the Arab diplomat and others familiar with the talks, all of whom spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity about the sensitive negotiations, warned that the proposal currently under discussion might collapse, as has happened with other proposals so far. Previous proposals have set some of the same criteria, but differing in the numbers of hostages involved and imposing conditions on their release. The diplomat said the latest outlines had only been agreed “in general terms.”
“We must hear a response today,” the diplomat said. If the Israelis agree, “it will happen quickly. If they reject it, we will use it again.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and other members of his war cabinet declined to comment Wednesday on a possible hostage deal, according to the newspaper.
Hamas told negotiators it does not have control or know the location of all the hostages, some of whom it says are being held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another armed group inside Gaza.
American officials said that a “large” truce for several days was necessary to gather the hostages for their release and arrange their safe passage.
The unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 resulted in the killing of about 1,200 people, the majority of whom were civilians, according to the Israeli authorities, who also estimate that about 240 people were taken hostage.
On the Palestinian side, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Wednesday that 11,500 Palestinians, including 4,710 children and 3,160 women, were killed in the Israeli bombing of the Strip.
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2023-11-16 01:08:00
