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Hamas has allegedly agreed to free five living Israeli hostages in exchange for a 50-day ceasefire, as the militant group released a video of a hostage making an appeal for his freedom.
Hamas’s chief, Khalil al-Hayya, reportedly said on Saturday that the militant group expressed willingness to release the five hostages over the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, which begins on Sunday, after a proposal it received two days ago from Egypt and Qatar, Reuters has reported.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after “a series of consultations pursuant to the proposal that was received from the mediators, Israel conveyed a counter-proposal in full coordination with the US.’’
Netanyahu’s government insists on the release of 10 of the 24 hostages believed to still be alive in Gaza, according to media reports quoting officials in Israel. Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead. Hamas is reportedly open to releasing their bodies.
In exchange, Israel is supposed to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Khalil added that Hamas’s weapons are a “red line” and it will not disarm as long as Israel’s military occupies Gaza.
Israel is not actively participating in negotiations for a ceasefire deal taking place in Doha between Egypt, Qatar and Hamas, despite increasing efforts to reach an agreement before Eid al-Fitr.
The news came three days after security sources told Reuters that Egypt, one of the mediators in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, had received positive indications from Israel over a new ceasefire proposal that would include a transitional phase.
Last week Israel resumed its military operation in Gaza, shattering the calm of the ceasefire with Hamas. According to the Palestinian health ministry, 921 people have been killed in the renewed assault.
On Saturday, Hamas’s armed wing released footage showing an Israeli hostage in Gaza calling on the government to secure his release, the second such video shared by the militant group within days.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group identified the man as Elkana Bohbot, who was abducted from the site of a music festival in southern Israel during Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war.
The footage lasts more than three minutes and shows Bohbot speaking in Hebrew and repeatedly raising his hands in desperation as he pleads for his freedom.
The Guardian could not verify when or where in the Gaza Strip the video was recorded.
In the clip, Bohbot said the bombardment could cost him his life, and pleaded to be reunited with his wife and son.
In a separate development, Israel’s military admitted on Saturday it had fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after identifying them as “suspicious vehicles”. Hamas condemned the attack as a “war crime” that killed at least one person.
The incident took place last Sunday in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in the southern city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 50,082 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and another 113,408 have been wounded since the beginning of the war.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this report.
