Hamas says it received Israeli response on hostage swap and ceasefire proposal
Istanbul, Turkey - Palestinian resistance group Hamas announced on Saturday that it had received Israel’s official response to a hostage swap and ceasefire proposal it sent to Egypt and Qatar on April 13.
“Hamas received Israel’s official response to the movement’s proposal delivered to mediators, Egypt and Qatar, on April 13,” said Khalil al-hayya, the group’s deputy head in the Gaza Strip and head of its Arab and Islamic Relations Office.
“The movement will study this proposal, and upon completion, will submit its response to the mediators,” added al-hayya.
The Israeli response coincided with a visit by a top Egyptian security delegation to Tel Aviv on Friday to discuss a possible Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, according to Egyptian and Israeli media.
Private broadcaster Al Qahera news TV quoted an unnamed Egyptian source as saying that the delegation will discuss a comprehensive ceasefire framework, saying there was ‘significant progress’ narrowing differences between the Egyptian and Israeli delegations.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported that security services ‘believe that this is the last opportunity to return the hostages from Gaza’.
Israeli news website Ynet also confirmed the arrival of an Egyptian delegation in Israel to meet with officials in efforts to achieve
a deal. Hamas demands an end to Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.
Tel Aviv believes 134 Israelis are being held in Gaza, while Israel is holding some 9,000 Palestinians in its jails.
A previous deal in November saw the release of 81 Israelis and 24 foreigners in exchange for 240 Palestinians, including 71 women and 169 children. The US, Qatar and Egypt have tried to broker an agreement to release the remaining Israeli captives.
Attack on refugee camp
Meanwhile, eight Palestinians were killed and 30 wounded on Saturday in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
It said airstrikes targeted a residential home in the camp that killed four Palestinians, including a baby.
In a separate strike on another house in the camp, four additional Palestinians were killed, with at least 30 injured.
More than 34,300 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,300 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.
The conflict has pushed 85 per cent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.
Global calls for a ceasefire have been growing as the war has entered its seventh month.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Israeli army detained 20 more Palestinians.
According to a joint statement issued by the Prisoners and ExPrisoners Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the new arrests brought the total number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli forces since October 7 to 8,480.
The latest arrests took place mostly in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarm, and Jenin.
During the Israeli arrest campaigns, the Israeli forces physically assaulted and abused Palestinians, while damaging their homes and property, the statement added.
Hamas received Israel’s response to the movement’s proposal delivered to mediators, Egypt and Qatar. The movement will study this proposal, and upon completion, will submit its response to the mediators
KHALIL AL HAYYA