2024-04-12 08:43:03
According to a senior member of the Islamist Hamas, the fate of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip can only be clarified during a ceasefire. Part of the negotiations is to reach an agreement on a ceasefire “in order to have enough time and security to collect final and more accurate data on the captured Israelis,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, on Telegram on Thursday evening .
The abductees are in different places in the embattled Gaza Strip and in the hands of different groups. Some of them were also lying “under the rubble” along with killed Palestinians, it was said. “We are negotiating to get heavy equipment for this purpose,” the Hamas official said.
Naim was responding to questions from media representatives regarding whether Hamas had rejected the US’s latest compromise proposal because it might not release 40 hostages in the first phase of a three-stage agreement. According to media reports, the first phase envisaged the release of women, soldiers, men over 50 years of age and men under 50 years of age with serious medical problems. However, in recent negotiations, Hamas stated that it did not have 40 living hostages from these categories. This raised fears that significantly more hostages might be dead than was known. Israel had previously assumed that just under 100 of the approximately 130 hostages remaining in the embattled Gaza Strip were still alive.
According to media reports, the US compromise proposal was presented on Sunday evening by CIA Director William Burns during negotiations in the Egyptian capital Cairo. The proposal called for Hamas to release 40 of the hostages held in exchange for 900 Palestinian prisoners during a six-week ceasefire – including 100 who were sentenced to life in prison for murdering Israelis. Israel should in turn allow up to 150,000 displaced Palestinians to return to the north of the coastal area, it said.
Hamas insists on a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the contested coastal area. The Israeli government is keeping open the possibility of continuing fighting following a ceasefire. Since Israel and Hamas do not speak to each other directly, the USA, Qatar and Egypt act as mediators.
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