Hamas is demanding ‘extra compensation’ in exchange for including 11 male hostages in the first phase of a potential ceasefire deal, reports claim.
Egyptian newspaper Al-Ghad reported that in exchange for including 11 male hostages, all of whom Hamas consider to be soldiers, the terror group is implicitly asking for the release of Palestinian prisoners who do not fit agreed-upon categories.
While this has not been official confirmed, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Saturday that Israel has agreed to release 200 Palestinian prisoners who are serving life sentences in Israeli jail, though negotiations over who will be released have stalled.
Al-Ghad reported that Israel is asking for 34 hostages, including the 11 males, to be released in this first round a potential ceasefire agreement.
Other issues under discussion including the potential reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt and the possible withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim Corridor, a perpendicular line that splits the Gaza Strip in two.
On top of this, Hamas is asking for Gazan civilians to be allowed to return to the north of the Strip, as well as a gradual withdrawal of troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of Israeli-patrolled land that runs parallel to Gaza’s border with Egypt.
As negotiations continue, Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight killed at least 16 people, Palestinian medical officials said.
A strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza City killed at least six people, including four children, according to the Civil Defence – first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government. The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike on Hamas militants sheltering there.
Hamas is demanding ‘extra compensation’ in exchange for including 11 male hostages in the first phase of a potential ceasefire deal, reports claim
Demonstrators strike drums during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, outside the Israeli Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024
A strike on a home in the central city of Deir al-Balah late on Saturday killed at least eight people, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
A further two people were killed in a strike in the southern city of Khan Younis on Sunday, just after midnight, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on those strikes.
Israel has continued to carry out daily strikes in Gaza more than 14 months into the war with Hamas. It says it only targets militants, whom it accuses of hiding among civilians, but the bombings frequently kill women and children.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s subsequent bombardment and ground invasion have killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in.
Funeral prayers are held for the Palestinians who died in Israeli attacks, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 22, 2024
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, December 22, 2024
A youth searches for survivors at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the Abu Samra family home in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on December 22, 2024
Israel has been carrying out a major operation in northern Gaza since early October, battling Hamas in the most isolated and heavily damaged part of the territory.
Tens of thousands have fled as the military has ordered a complete evacuation and allowed almost no humanitarian aid to enter.
The Israeli military body overseeing civilian affairs in Gaza, known as Cogat, said it had facilitated the evacuation of more than 100 patients, caregivers and others from the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the Awda Hospital in the far north, which have struggled to function.
Cogat said it had also facilitated the delivery of 5,000 litres of fuel and food packages to the hospitals.
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