Gaza Strip-The agreement to release hostages kidnapped by Hamas appears to be very “close,” indicated Qatar and the United States, key mediators along with Egypt.
“We are now very, very close,” declared US President Joe Biden. “Very soon we could be returning some of the hostages to their homes. But I don’t want to go into details, because nothing is done until it is done,” he added.
Both Hamas and Israel reported this progress in the agreement to release the hostages kidnapped by the Islamist group in its deadly October 7 attack on Israeli territory.
“We’re going forward. (…) I hope we have good news soon,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who conditioned any ceasefire on the release of the hostages.
The negotiators “were never so close to an agreement,” indicated the Qatari Foreign Ministry. The negotiations have reached their “final phase,” said spokesman Majed Al Ansari.
“We are close to reaching an agreement on a truce,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh declared in a message posted on Telegram.
According to sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian armed group, both movements accepted an agreement whose details must be announced by Qatar and the mediators.
Netanyahu’s office indicated that the “war government” would meet to discuss “progress related to the release of our hostages.”
Two sources familiar with these negotiations say that the tentative agreement is based on the release of between “50 and 100” hostages in exchange for the release of 300 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, including children and women.
The exchange would be carried out at a rate of “10” Israeli hostages per day against “30” Palestinian prisoners and would also include the entry of food, medical assistance and fuel to Gaza and a “five-day humanitarian truce.”
The UN, which has been calling for a ceasefire for weeks on humanitarian grounds, estimates that the war displaced almost 1.7 of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants.
AFP Agency.
Source: Ambito
