A senior Hamas leader said on Monday that his movement was ready to release all Israeli hostages in exchange for guarantees that Israel would end the war in the Gaza Strip.
A Hamas delegation traveled to Cairo this weekend for talks with officials from Egypt and Qatar, which are brokering a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory with the United States.
“We are ready to release all Israelis (hostages) as part of a genuine prisoner exchange agreement, in exchange for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid,” Taher al-Nunu, one of the Islamist movement’s leaders, told AFP.
He accused Israel of obstructing progress towards a ceasefire.
“The problem is not the number” of hostages to be released, he said, “but the fact that (Israel) is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war.”
“Therefore, Hamas insists on the need for guarantees to force (Israel) to respect the agreement,” he added.
According to the Israeli news website Ynet, a new proposal has been submitted to Hamas that would include the release of ten live hostages in exchange for US assurances that Israel will begin negotiations on a second phase of the ceasefire.
The first phase of the ceasefire, between January 19 and March 17, allowed the return of 33 hostages, including eight dead, in exchange for the release of around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Efforts to restore the ceasefire have so far failed.
In Israel, the Hostage Families Forum, the main organization campaigning for the release of Israelis held in Gaza, has spoken out against the gradual approach, calling it a “dangerous concept”.
“The State of Israel has an obligation to return everything,” the organization insists in a statement.
“We demand a necessary, feasible and appropriate solution: end the war and immediately return all hostages in one step.”
Taher al-Nunu also stated that Hamas will not disarm, which is one of the conditions set by Israel for ending the war.
“Weapons of resistance are non-negotiable,” he said.
The Gaza war was launched by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack resulted in the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to AFP based on official data. Of the 251 abducted, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 dead, according to the military.
Hamas’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 1,574 Palestinians had been killed since Israel resumed military operations on March 18, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 50,944 since Israel’s response to the attack began 18 months ago.
