As the news portal “Axios” reported on Wednesday night, citing two Israeli officials and another informed source, Israel expects the Islamist Hamas to release more than three dozen hostages in return.
Israel’s President Izchak Herzog had promised a new break in fighting the day before. “Israel is ready for a further humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian assistance to enable the release of hostages,” he told diplomats, according to a spokesman.
Israel’s proposal for a ceasefire of at least a week in return for the release of around 40 hostages was made through the mediator Qatar, the news portal reported. It is about the remaining women, men over 60 years of age and other hostages still held in Gaza who are sick or seriously injured and in urgent need of medical help, it said.
It is Israel’s first proposal since a week-long ceasefire expired last month, Axios reported. 105 hostages were released. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
At least 109 hostages in the hands of Hamas
Media reported on Monday that Mossad chief David Barnea was discussing new negotiations with Hamas with CIA Director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Abdulrahman Al Thani in Warsaw. The terrorist organization had actually previously said that it did not want to conduct any negotiations without an end to Israel’s hostilities. According to Israeli estimates, at least 109 hostages are currently being held in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also not releasing the bodies of several kidnapped people.
According to Israeli media reports, after the Islamist Hamas, the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad also published a video of Israeli hostages. A 79-year-old man and a 47-year-old can be seen in the video, the Israeli newspaper “The Times of Israel” reported Tuesday evening. Both men warned that they could die at any moment due to attacks by the Israeli military, it said.
It was initially unclear under what circumstances the video was made and when it was filmed. The news site Ynet also reported on the video. Accordingly, the men were kidnapped from a kibbutz in the border area to the Gaza Strip on October 7th.
On Monday, Hamas also released a new video of three Israeli hostages. According to Israeli media reports, the three men, aged 79 and 84, were also abducted from a kibbutz. An Israeli military spokesman described the Hamas footage as “cruel terror.” Addressing the three men in the video, he said: “We will not rest until you return.”
In northern Israel, the army said it intercepted several rockets from Lebanon and shelled the launch site. As the Israeli army announced late on Tuesday evening, air defenses successfully intercepted six rockets fired from neighboring Lebanon following a rocket alarm in northern Israel. A fighter plane then fired on both the rocket launcher and a “terrorist cell”.
