Red Cross vehicles carrying the bodies of three people believed to be deceased hostages handed over by Hamas make their way toward the border crossing with Israel, to be transferred to Israeli authorities, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Hamas said it had finished preparations for freeing its remaining living hostages, which Israel expects to take place early Monday (October 13, 2025), fulfilling a key step in Donald Trump’s Gaza plan hours before he hosts a peace summit in Egypt.

Under the U.S. president’s proposal, once the Palestinian militants have handed over the hostages, Israel is expected to begin releasing around 2,000 detainees in exchange.

But negotiators were still wrangling Sunday (October 12) over the final arrangements, with two Hamas sources telling AFP the group was insisting that Israel include seven senior Palestinian leaders on the list of those to be released.

Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, said the hostage release “will begin early Monday (October 13) morning”, with Israel “expecting all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time”.

Mr. Trump is set to arrive in Israel shortly after the expected release and will address the Israeli parliament before heading to Egypt to host a meeting of world leaders to back his plan to end the two-year-old Gaza war and promote Middle East peace.

‘Completed all preparations’

“Palestinian prisoners will be released once Israel has confirmation that all of our hostages set to be released tomorrow are across the border into Israel,” Bedrosian said.

During a previous truce, the identification of deceased hostages was only confirmed after autopsies at Israel’s Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

Two Hamas sources, meanwhile, told AFP the group was insisting Israel free seven prominent Palestinian figures as part of the exchange – at least one of whom Israel has previously rejected.

“Hamas insists that the final list include seven senior leaders, most notably Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat, Ibrahim Hamed, and Abbas Al-Sayyed,” one source said, a claim confirmed by the other. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

The source said that the group and its allies had nevertheless “completed all preparations” for handing over to Israel all the living hostages held in Gaza.

Under the terms of the plan, Hamas is to release the remaining 47 hostages – living and dead – who were abducted on October 7, 2023, during the brutal cross-border Hamas assault that left 1,219 people dead, most of them civilians, and triggered Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza.

Hamas is also expected to hand over remains of a soldier killed in 2014 during a previous Gaza war.

Among the Palestinian prisoners to be released, 250 are security detainees, including many convicted of killing Israelis, while about 1,700 were arrested by the Israeli army in Gaza during the war.

After his Israel visit, Mr. Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will chair a summit of leaders from more than 20 countries in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The Egyptian presidency said the meeting will aim “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security”.

‘Fear and worry’

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he will attend, as has Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his counterparts from Italy and Spain, Giorgia Meloni and Pedro Sanchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

No Israeli nor Hamas officials will be present, officials from both camps confirmed.

The third day of the ceasefire saw some aid trucks cross into Gaza, but residents in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip, said some shipments were being ransacked by starving residents in chaotic scenes that saw food parcels trampled.

For Mahmud al-Muzain, a bystander, the scuffle showed that Gazans did not trust that the U.S.-led negotiations would lead to a long-term peace. “Everyone fears the war will return,” he told AFP. “We stockpile food out of fear and worry that the war will come back,” he said.

Since the ceasefire in the territory took hold, many displaced residents, like 38-year-old Fatima Salem, have been returning to devastated homes. “My eyes kept searching for landmarks I had lost – nothing looked the same, even the neighbours’ houses were gone,” she said.

“I missed the smell of my home, even if it’s now just rubble. We will pitch a tent next to it and wait for reconstruction,” she added.

‘A long-term truce’

Despite the apparent breakthrough in negotiations, mediators still have the tricky task of securing a longer-term political solution that will see Hamas hand over its weapons.

A Hamas source close to the group’s negotiating committee told AFP on Sunday (October 12) that it would not participate in post-war Gaza governance, but he pushed back on calls for Hamas to lay down its weapons.

“Hamas agrees to a long-term truce, and for its weapons not to be used at all during this period, except in the event of an Israeli attack on Gaza,” the source said.

Under the Mr. Trump plan, as Israel conducts a partial withdrawal from Gaza, it will be replaced by a multi-national force coordinated by a U.S.-led command centre in Israel.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,806 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

Published – October 12, 2025 09:57 pm IST

A man walks past graffiti of Shiri and Yarden Bibas and their sons, Ariel, left, and Kfir, right, who were taken captive by Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel
| Photo Credit: AP

Israel braced on Thursday (February 20, 2025) for the return of the bodies of infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in their October 7, 2023 attack and among the most potent symbols of the trauma inflicted that day.

Palestinian militant groups said the bodies of the two boys and their mother Shiri Bibas, along with that of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, would be handed over on Thursday under the Gaza ceasefire agreement reached last month with the backing of the United States and the mediation of Qatar and Egypt.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief video statement that Thursday would be “a very difficult day for the state of Israel. An upsetting day, a day of grief.”

Kfir Bibas was nine months old when the Bibas family, including their father Yarden, was abducted at Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of a string of communities near Gaza that was overrun by Hamas-led attackers from Gaza on October 7.

Killed in Israeli air strike

Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, but the deaths were never confirmed by Israeli authorities and even at the last minute, some refused to accept they were dead.

“Shiri and the kids became a symbol,” said Yiftach Cohen, a resident of Nir Oz, which lost around a quarter of its inhabitants, either killed or kidnapped, during the October 7 assault. “I still hope that they will be alive.”

Yarden Bibas was returned in an earlier exchange of hostages for prisoners this month. But the family said this week their “journey is not over” until they received final confirmation of what happened to the boys and their mother.

The handover will be the first return of dead bodies during the current agreement and Israel is not expected to confirm their identities until full DNA checks have been completed.

Despite accusations on both sides of ceasefire breaches, the fragile agreement that took effect on January 19 has held up since the first in a series of exchanges of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced criticism from his far-right coalition allies for agreeing to the deal, which some in Israel feel rewards Hamas and leaves the militant group in place in Gaza.

But successive surveys have shown broad support among the public for the ceasefire, and thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to demand the government stick to the deal until all the remaining hostages are returned.

Israel launched its war in the Gaza Strip after the Hamas-led attack that killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, with 251 kidnapped. The Israeli military campaign has killed some 48,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say, and left densely populated Gaza largely in ruins.

Living hostages

Thursday’s handover of bodies will be followed by the return of six living hostages on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians, expected to be women and minors detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the first phase of an agreement intended to open the way towards ending the war in Gaza.

So far 19 Israeli hostages have been released, as well as five Thais who were returned in an unscheduled handover.

Negotiations for a second phase, expected to cover the return of around 60 remaining hostages, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip to allow an end to the war, are expected to begin in the coming days.

Prospects for an agreement remain uncertain, however, with both sides far apart on issues including the future governance of Gaza, which Israel has said cannot be run by either Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

The issue has also been clouded by U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for Palestinians to be resettled outside Gaza, a move critics say would amount to a war crime and ethnic cleansing, and for the enclave to be developed as a waterfront property under U.S. control.

American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, 65, center left, waves as he is escorted by Hamas fighters to be handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza City, Saturday Feb.1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

A freed Israeli hostage said Friday (February 14, 2025) that Hamas militants starved and tortured him during captivity, as the Red Cross expressed concern over the condition of those still held in Gaza.

Hamas is set to release three more captives on Saturday in the sixth hostage-prisoner swap under a ceasefire deal with Israel.

“When I was in Gaza, I lived in constant fear, fear for my life and my personal safety,” Keith Siegel, an Israel-American who was freed on February 1, said in a video statement addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The terrorists kicked me, spat on me, and held me with no water, no light, and no air to breathe.

“I was starved and tortured, both physically and emotionally,” he said.

The mother of another released hostage, Liri Albag, told Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that her daughter sometimes had nothing to eat for days, and “at times, they ate food meant for donkeys”.

Shiri Albag, in comments published on Thursday, said there was “minimal hygiene” in Gaza and recalled how her daughter’s captives taunted her with videos of the male hostages being beaten and abused.

“Liri told us right at the beginning, ‘I came out of hell and we went through hell there, but the boys, the soldiers, are going through more than us,'” Shiri Albag said in a separate interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news.

The latest allegations of abuse in captivity came hours as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the ongoing hostage-prisoner swaps between Israel and Hamas, said it was concerned about those still in Gaza.

“The latest release operations reinforce the urgent need for ICRC access to those held hostage. We remain very concerned about the conditions of the hostages,” the Red Cross said in a statement on X.

“We have consistently reiterated that release and transfer operations should be carried out in a dignified and safe manner.

“The ICRC will continue our efforts to see all hostages released, until the last hostage is returned.”

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on January 19, the two sides have conducted five hostage-prisoner swaps.

During the fifth exchange on February 8, Hamas forced three hostages to thank their captors in front of crowds of Palestinians gathered to witness their release in Gaza.

The emaciated appearance of the hostages shocked their families and the world, and prompted the ICRC to call on Hamas to ensure subsequent swaps are more private and dignified.

The next hostage-prisoner exchange is scheduled for Saturday. Three additional men are to be released.

Since the ceasefire began, militants have released 16 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.

A drone view of people gathering during the arrival of the freed Palestinian prisoners, after they were released from an Israeli jail as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hamas and Israel will carry out their fourth hostage-prisoner swap of the Gaza ceasefire on Saturday (February 1, 2025), with the militant group to free three Israeli captives in exchange for 90 inmates in Israeli jails.

Militants in Gaza began releasing hostages after the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire with Israel took effect on January 19. The hostages have been in captivity for nearly 15 months.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have so far handed over 15 hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli campaign group, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, named the captives to be released on Saturday as Yarden Bibas, Keith Seigel, who also has U.S. citizenship, and Ofer Kalderon, who also holds French nationality.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed it had received the names of the three captives to be released.

In exchange, Israel will free 90 prisoners, nine of whom are serving life sentences, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said.

During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which started the Gaza war, militants abducted Siegel from kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Kalderon and Bibas from kibbutz Nir Oz.

Militants took a total of 251 people hostage that day. Of those, 79 still remain in Gaza, including at least 34 the military says are dead.

Those seized include the wife and two children of Bibas, whom Hamas has already declared dead, although Israeli officials have yet to confirm that.

The two Bibas boys — Kfir, the youngest hostage, who turned two in captivity earlier this month, and his four-year-old brother Ariel — have become symbols of the suffering of the hostages held in Gaza.

The children were taken along with their mother, Shiri.

Hamas says the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023.

Chaotic scenes

The arrangements for hostage handovers in Gaza have sometimes been chaotic, particularly for the most recent handover in the southern city of Khan Younis, which produced scenes that the Israeli prime minister condemned as “shocking”.

Woman hostage Arbel Yehud was visibly distressed as masked gunman struggled to clear a path for her through crowds of spectators desperate to witness her handover, television images showed.

Israel briefly delayed Thursday’s prisoner release in protest and the ICRC urged all parties to improve security.

“The security of these operations must be assured, and we urge for improvements in the future,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric said.

Later on Thursday, Israeli authorities released 110 imates from Ofer prison, including high-profile former militant commander Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, who was given a hero’s welcome in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

‘Where’s Dad?’

Also freed was Hussein Nasser, who received little attention from the crowd but was at the centre of his daughters’ world.

“Where’s Dad?” Raghda Nasser asked tearfully as she moved through the crowd, an AFP correspondent reported.

Raghda, 21, hugged her father in the flesh for the first time Thursday night. Her mother was pregnant with her when he was jailed 22 years ago.

“I just visited him behind the glass in Israeli prisons. I cannot express my feelings,” Raghda said.

The fragile ceasefire hinges on the release of a total of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1,900 people – mostly Palestinians – in Israeli jails.

The truce deal has allowed a surge of aid into Gaza, where the war has created a long-running humanitarian crisis.

Negotiations for a second phase of the deal are set to start on Monday, according to a timeline provided by an Israeli official. This phase would cover the release of the remaining captives.

During the current phase, more than 462,000 war-displaced Palestinians have returned to the north of Gaza since Israel restored access on Monday, according to UN figures. Many have gone back to homes that have been completely destroyed.

Trucks carrying Egyptian humanitarian aid wait to start moving to the Rafah border crossing to enter Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Cairo, Egypt, January 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Qatar announced early Monday (January 27, 2025) that an agreement has been reached to release an Israeli civilian hostage and allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, easing the first major crisis of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The statement from Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks, said Hamas will hand over the civilian hostage, Arbel Yehoud, along with two other hostages before Friday. And on Monday, Israeli authorities will allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement said the hostage release — which will include soldier Agam Berger — will take place on Thursday, and confirmed that Palestinians can move north on Monday. Israel’s military said people can start crossing on foot at 7 a.m.

Under the ceasefire deal, Israel on Saturday was to begin allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza. But Israel put that on hold because of Yehoud, who Israel said should have been released on Saturday. Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement.

The release of Yehoud and two others is in addition to the one already set for next Saturday, when three hostages should be released.

In addition, Hamas in a statement said the militant group had handed over a list of required information about all hostages to be released in the ceasefire’s six-week first phase. The Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed it had received it.

Thousands of Palestinians have gathered, waiting to move north through the Netzarim corridor bisecting Gaza, while local health officials on Sunday said Israeli forces fired on the crowd, killing two people and wounding nine.

U.S. President Donald Trump meanwhile suggested that most of Gaza’s population be at least temporarily resettled elsewhere, including in Egypt and Jordan, to “just clean out” the war-ravaged enclave. Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians rejected that, amid fears that Israel might never allow refugees to return.

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said Palestinians would never accept such a proposal, “even if seemingly well-intentioned under the guise of reconstruction.” He said the Palestinians can rebuild Gaza “even better than before” if Israel lifts its blockade.

Israeli forces fired on the waiting crowds on three occasions overnight and into Sunday, killing two people and wounding nine, including a child, according to Al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.

Israel’s military in a statement said it fired warning shots at “several gatherings of dozens of suspects who were advancing toward the troops and posed a threat to them.”

Israel has pulled back from several areas of Gaza under the ceasefire, which came into effect last Sunday. The military has warned people to stay away from its forces, which still operate in a buffer zone inside Gaza along the border and in the Netzarim corridor.

Hamas freed four female Israeli soldiers on Saturday, and Israel released some 200 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks. But Israel said Yehoud should have been released ahead of the soldiers.

Hamas said it had told mediators — the United States, Egypt and Qatar — that Yehoud was alive and provided guarantees that she would be released.

Frustration grew among the Palestinians waiting to go north as some warmed around bonfires against the winter cold.

“We have been in agony for a year and a half,” said Nadia Qasem.

Fadi al-Sinwar, also displaced from Gaza City, said “the fate of more than a million people is linked to one person,” referring to Yehoud.

“See how valuable we are? We are worthless,” he said.

The ceasefire is aimed at ending the 15-month war triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and freeing hostages still held in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Around 90 hostages are still in Gaza, and Israeli authorities believe at least a third, and up to half, have died.

Itzik Horn, the father of hostages Iair and Eitan Horn, called any resumption of fighting “a death sentence for the hostages” and criticized government ministers who want the war to go on.

The ceasefire’s first phase runs until early March and includes the release of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The second — and far more difficult — phase, has yet to be negotiated. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war, while Israel has threatened to resume its offensive until Hamas is destroyed.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. More than 100 were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the remains of dozens more, at least three of them mistakenly killed by Israeli forces. Seven have been freed in the latest ceasefire.

Israel’s military campaign has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not say how many of the dead were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

Israeli bombardment and ground operations have flattened wide swaths of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people. Many who have returned home since the ceasefire began have found only mounds of rubble.

Smoke rises inside the Gaza Strip, before a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas goes into effect, as seen from southern Israel, January 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The story so far: After 15 months of fighting, which was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack in which about 1,200 people were killed, Israel and Hamas have accepted a ceasefire in Gaza. On Saturday, Israel’s 24-member cabinet gave approval to the agreement, which is expected to be implemented in three phases. The deal, which came into force on Sunday, was reached in talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. If it holds, it would provide a desperately needed relief for Gaza, the tiny strip along the Mediterranean Sea which was relentlessly bombed by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) over the past 15 months in which over 46,000 Palestinians were killed and almost the entire population of the enclave displaced.

What are the terms?

The deal is to be implemented in three phases. In the 42-day first phase, Hamas will release 33 hostages, most of those alive, and Israel will free roughly 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners. Israel will also partially withdraw the IDF from Gaza, and allow the entry of about 600 trucks of humanitarian aid into the enclave every day. The IDF is expected to withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza, which has seen massive Israeli bombardment from Day one of the war, from the south, where most of the enclave’s population have been pushed into. If the Israeli troops withdraw from Netzarim, it would allow some of the displaced Gazans to move from the south and centre to the north.

But in the first phase, Israeli troops will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor on the Rafah crossing — which means Israel will continue to monitor Gaza’s border with Egypt. On the 16th day of the first phase, discussions are expected to begin on the second phase. If the first phase is implemented as per plan, 65 hostages will still be in Hamas’s captivity and Israeli troops will still be there at Philadelphi and some buffer zones in Gaza. In the second stage, Hamas will be required to release most of the remaining living hostages and both sides should declare a permanent end to the hostilities. The third phase will involve discussions on the ‘day after’.

Why did both parties accept a ceasefire now?

The deal accepted by both parties is not essentially different from the deal offered eight months ago. Hamas had announced earlier that it would accept a deal, provided the war is brought to a permanent end.

In May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the agreement, saying Israel would continue its military offensive in Gaza until it meets its objectives.

But a lot has changed in the region since.

Israel now believes its regional standing has become stronger. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia organisation, has lost most of its top leadership in Israeli attacks. The IDF has killed most of the leaders of Hamas, including Yahya Sinwar. Israel carried out a massive air strike in Iran in October, targeting the Islamic Republic’s air defences and other military facilities (to which Iran hasn’t responded yet). More importantly, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria has further weakened Iran’s so-called ‘axis of resistance’ in West Asia. Mr. Assad’s Syria was the land bridge between Iran and Hezbollah. Since this land bridge is disrupted, Hezbollah will find it difficult to rearm itself. These developments have also strengthened Mr. Netanyahu’s political standing at home.

These factors probably influenced him to change his position about a deal with Hamas. But that’s not all.

After months of fighting, Israel failed to meet its declared objectives in Gaza. When he launched the war, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel would dismantle Hamas. Israeli attacks have degraded Hamas’s militant infrastructure, but Hamas reinvented itself as an insurgency, its original avatar. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, recently said the American assessment was that Hamas recruited as many fighters as it had lost.

The inability to meet its objectives through military means might also have influenced Israel’s leaders to take a more pragmatic view of pausing the conflict and getting the hostages freed. Then, there is the Trump factor.

What role did the U.S. play?

The Biden administration has been pushing for a ceasefire for long, but it also offered full support to Israel’s war in Gaza. Washington continues to supply weapons to Israel and offer diplomatic protection to Israel at global fora. Mr. Biden’s refusal to use effective pressure tactics on Israel meant that the latter continued the war despite Washington’s public call and private diplomatic push for a ceasefire. But now, Mr. Biden can claim that a ceasefire was reached just days before he left the White House. Arab and Israeli media claim that the Trump factor also played a key role. Donald Trump had earlier said that “all hell will break loose” if there was no agreement between Israel and Hamas before he takes office on January 20 as the 47th President of the U.S. Mr. Trump’s West Asia envoy Steve Witkoff had met the negotiators and the Israeli leadership last week. Times of Israel reported, quoting Arab officials, that Mr. Witkoff managed to achieve in a single meeting more than what President Biden did the whole year.

Mr. Trump is known for his pro-Israel positions. But he had promised during his campaign that he would bring the wars in West Asia and Ukraine to an end if returned to the White House. If the war is brought to an end, besides the humanitarian angle, it would offer some stability to West Asia. Mr. Trump may not like the U.S. being drawn into another never-ending war in the region. Also, if the Israel-Hamas war pauses, the Houthis of Yemen could stop attacking Israel and the ships passing through the Red Sea. Both the U.S. and Israel carried out air strikes against the Houthis in recent months but failed to stop their attacks.

If the Red Sea calms down, normal freight traffic through the Suez Canal could resume, tamping down the inflationary pressure on the global economy.

Why is Phase 3 going to be a challenge?

As of now, the focus of both parties would be on implementing the first phase — which has a fair chance of being implemented. The second phase could see the exchange of more hostages for prisoners. But the real challenge would be Phase 3. Hamas has demanded a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel now realises that it cannot dismantle Hamas — the organisation would survive in one way or another. On a more practical note, Israel doesn’t want to leave Hamas as a ruling or fighting force in Gaza. This poses a dilemma for Israel. If it agrees to end the war and leave Gaza, Hamas would remain a militant insurgency in Gaza. If Israel continues to stay in Gaza, there won’t be a lasting ceasefire agreement and a war of attrition will go on.

A Hamas official said on Sunday (January 5, 2025) the group was ready to free 34 hostages in the “first phase” of a potential deal with Israel, after Israel said indirect talks on a truce and hostage release agreement had resumed in Qatar.

Mediators Qatar, Egypt, and the United States have tried for months to strike a deal to end the war. The latest effort comes just days before Donald Trump takes office as president of the United States on January 20.

The talks took place as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 23 people according to rescuers, nearly 15 months into the war.

During that time there has been only one truce, a one-week pause in November 2023 that saw 80 Israeli hostages freed along with 240 Palestinians from Israeli jails.

Now, “Hamas has agreed to release 34 Israeli prisoners from a list presented by Israel as part of the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal,” said an official of the Palestinian militants.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas had yet to provide a list of hostages for potential release under an agreement.

The Hamas official, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss the ongoing negotiations with the media, said the initial swap would include all the women, children, elderly people and sick captives still held in Gaza.

But Hamas needed time to determine their condition, he added.

“Hamas has agreed to release the 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead,” the official said. “However, the group needs a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead.”

During their attack on October 7, 2023 which began the Gaza war, militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.

Until the Hamas official’s comment there had been no update on the talks, which both warring sides were to resume in Qatar over the weekend.

“Efforts are under way to free the hostages, notably the Israeli delegation which left yesterday [Friday] for negotiations in Qatar,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told relatives of a hostage on Saturday, according to his office.

Rescuers using ‘bare hands’

In December, Qatar expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following Mr. Trump’s election victory.

But Hamas and Israel then traded accusations of imposing new conditions and obstacles.

In northern Gaza on Sunday, the Civil Defence agency said an air strike on a house in the Sheikh Radwan area had killed at least 11 people.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the victims included women and children, and rescuers were using their “bare hands” to search for five people still trapped under rubble.

The Israeli military said Sunday it had struck more than 100 “terror targets” in Gaza over the past two days, marking an apparent escalation in its assault.

The Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said a total of 88 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours.

In one strike, five people died when the house of the Abu Jarbou family was struck in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, rescuers said.

AFP footage from another strike, on Bureij camp near Nuseirat, showed rescuers transporting bodies and injured people to a hospital.

It showed a medic attempting to resuscitate a wounded man inside an ambulance, while another carried an injured child to the hospital.

Relatives cried over the bodies of two men wrapped in white shrouds, the images showed.

Strikes against rocket fire

Several of the strikes targeted sites from which militants had been firing projectiles into Israel in recent days, the military said.

The military also announced that its forces had killed a militant commander in close combat in northern Gaza last week.

It said the slain man was a member of militant group Islamic Jihad’s rocket array, and had participated in the October 7, 2023 attack.

Last week, Katz warned of intensified strikes if the incoming rocket fire continued.

Rocket fire had become less frequent as the war dragged on but has recently intensified, as Israel has pressed a major land and air offensive in the territory’s north since early October.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli data.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 45,805 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had killed a teenager during a raid on a refugee camp near the city of Nablus on Sunday.

Mutaz Ahmad Abdul Wahab Madani, 17, was “killed and two others were wounded by occupation forces’ gunfire during a raid near Askar Camp east of Nablus”, said a ministry statement.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.