As Israeli and Hamas officers continued oblique talks on Monday for a cease-fire and hostage launch deal, Hamas representatives indicated that the group had authorised an Israeli checklist of 34 hostages to be launched within the first stage of an settlement, conveying a way of momentum.
However the Israeli authorities shortly dampened any notion that Hamas’s acceptance of the checklist constituted a big breakthrough towards ending the warfare in Gaza.
Right here’s what we all know concerning the checklist of hostages and the state of the talks, after months of false begins and failed rounds.
What Hamas is saying
A Hamas consultant briefed on the negotiations advised The New York Occasions on Monday that if a deal is reached, Hamas agrees to launch the 34 hostages whose names seem on a listing that Israel offered through mediators. The consultant spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of the talks are being held in secrecy.
The USA has lengthy been pushing for a deal and is making an attempt to facilitate one with the assistance of Qatar and Egypt, the 2 fundamental nations mediating between Israel and Hamas.
The Reuters information company reported on Sunday night time that Hamas had authorised the checklist offered by Israel. The report cited an unnamed Hamas official who added that any hostage deal was contingent upon Israel agreeing to a timetable for withdrawal from Gaza and a everlasting cease-fire, in keeping with Hamas’s longstanding calls for.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has refused to overtly declare any willingness to finish the warfare, vowing to eradicate Hamas as a navy power and governing energy in Gaza.
Roughly 100 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza out of some 250 individuals taken captive through the Hamas-led assaults in October 2023 that prompted the warfare. Not less than a 3rd of the captives are presumed to be useless, in keeping with Israel.
A weeklong truce in November 2023 allowed for the discharge of 105 hostages in change for some 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israel. Just a few hostages have been rescued alive by Israeli forces, and the our bodies of dozens of others have been recovered. Israeli troopers unintentionally killed three hostages whom they misidentified as fighters.
Subsequent efforts to succeed in a cease-fire have faltered amid gaps within the two sides’ calls for, with either side blaming the opposite for thwarting efforts to succeed in a deal.
What Israel says
Israel despatched the unique checklist of hostages to be launched within the first section of any deal to the mediators in July 2024, in keeping with a press release launched on Monday by Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace.
However the checklist has since been up to date as a result of three of those that initially appeared on it — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli twin citizen, and two Israeli girls, Carmel Gat and Eden Yerushalmi — have been killed by their captors in late August. The newer model of the checklist was published by the BBC on Monday, and Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace appeared to verify its authenticity.
On this newest spherical of talks, Israel has demanded data from Hamas about which hostages stay alive. With out that, Israeli officers say, there will be no settlement on what number of Palestinian prisoners Israel can be prepared to launch in change for them.
“As but, Israel has not acquired any affirmation or remark by Hamas relating to the standing of the hostages showing on the checklist,” Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace stated in its assertion, including, “Israel will proceed to behave relentlessly for the return of all of our hostages.”
The Hamas consultant who spoke to The Occasions stated the group wouldn’t give Israel particulars on the standing of the 34 hostages on the checklist with out getting some issues in return.
The checklist consists of 10 girls, 5 of them troopers; 11 older male hostages aged between 50 and 85; two younger youngsters who Hamas beforehand stated had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, however whose deaths haven’t been confirmed by the Israeli authorities; and different male hostages whose launch Israel considers pressing.
Along with Israel’s demand for data on the standing of the hostages, different sticking factors stay within the negotiations, in keeping with Israeli and Hamas officers. An Israeli official accustomed to the matter, who was not approved to debate the negotiations publicly, stated on Monday that the talks have been progressing and that the perimeters have been nearer than they’ve been shortly. However the official cautioned that they’ve additionally been at the same level earlier than.
Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
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