The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, Benjamin Netanyahu, has denied this Sunday the information that attributes to the Islamic Resistance Movement the dissemination of the news that they have approved the release of 34 hostages of the hundred held in the Gaza Strip according to the list requested by Israel as the first step of a ceasefire agreement.
“So far Hamas has not given a list of hostages,” Netanyahu’s office explained in a statement reported by ‘The Times of Israel’ newspaper.
Israeli television Canal 12 has reported that Hamas has sent this list, but has not confirmed which of the aforementioned individuals are alive and which are not.
It had previously been reported that Netanyahu would meet this Sunday afternoon with his Security Cabinet amid news of progress in negotiations for the release of hostages.
Meanwhile, the head of the Mossad -Israeli secret services- and main Israeli negotiator, David Barneaplans to travel to Qatar this Monday to participate in the negotiations, according to what the Israeli newspaper ‘Yedioth Aharonoth’ has published.
This Sunday the Qatari newspaper Al Arabi al-Yadid has published citing Palestinian sources that This Sunday is a “decisive day” for the Doha negotiations after delegations managed to overcome the remaining obstacles. Sources cited by Israeli public television Can They point to progress over the weekend, but deny that there is an agreement in principle.
A Hamas official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the ongoing indirect negotiations with the media, told the AFP that the 34 hostages Those to be included in the initial exchange include all the women, children, elderly and sick captives still held in Gaza.
The official said Hamas needs time to determine whether they were alive.
“Hamas has agreed to release all 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead. However, the group needs a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead,” the official said.
Of the 251 hostages captured during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war, 96 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
On Saturday, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Israel’s main cities to ask the Prime Minister’s Government for an agreement with the Palestinian militias for the release of hundreds of hostages.
Again the largest concentration was in Tel Avivwhere police detained six protesters on the iconic Begin Street after they refused to clear the road, the newspaper reported The Times of Israel.
The Police used horses to charge against the protesters, who were chanting slogans against police intervention.
One of the speakers on the stand appealed to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. “End this shitty war now,” he said. Omri Lifshitzson of the freed hostage Yocheved Lofshitz.
The nephew of one of the dead hostages, City Moralso addressed Trump. “Stop the Gaza revenge campaign. We need our hostages back. We die without them,” dojo. “The previous administration has failed miserably. “You can do better,” he added.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, several protesters stripped to their underwear on King George Street and showed inscriptions in Hebrew and Arabic denouncing the consequences of the cold in the Gaza Strip with phrases such as “In Gaza they are dying of cold.”
The bulk of the demonstration marched to Paris Square, next to Netanyahu’s official residence. There have been no arrests.
(With information from EP and AFP)
