Hope Rises: Gaza hostage deal ‘soon’

AFP | Gaza                                                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Hopes mounted yesterday that Hamas could release dozens of hostages from war-torn Gaza after the group’s leader and key mediator Qatar said a truce deal was in sight and the Israeli premier pointed to “progress”.

The announcements are the most optimistic yet of a potential breakthrough in the conflict, which has raged for more than six weeks and left thousands dead on both sides.

“We are close to reaching a deal on a truce,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said. In Qatar, foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said “we’re very optimistic, very hopeful” and told reporters: “We are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to destroy Hamas, was more circumspect, telling soldiers at a base only that “we are making progress” on the return of hostages.

“I hope there will be good news soon,” he added, with speculation an announcement could be made later yesterday, after his office announced meetings of his war and security cabinets and government. US President Joe Biden, who does not support a full ceasefire, said a temporary truce was “now very close”.

“We could bring some of these hostages home very soon,” he said. “But I don’t want to get into the details of things because nothing is done until it’s done.”

Release deal

Hopes of a release deal have been mounting since Qatar on Sunday said only “minor” practical issues remained.

Speculation grew further when the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is often involved in prisoner exchanges and hostage releases, said yesterday its president had met Haniyeh in Qatar.

Despite talk of a temporary truce, fighting raged on in Gaza’s bloodiest ever war, sparked by the October 7 attack in which Israel says Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. In retaliation, Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza.

According to the Hamas government, the war has killed more than 14,100 people, including nearly 6,000 children and close to 4,000 women. Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which also participated in the attacks, told AFP on condition of anonymity that their groups had agreed to the terms of a truce deal.

The tentative agreement would include a five-day truce, comprised of a complete ceasefire on the ground and an end to Israeli air operations over Gaza, except in the north, where they would only halt for six hours daily.

Under the deal, which the sources said could yet change, between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign hostages would be released, but no military personnel. In exchange, some 300 Palestinians would be freed from Israeli jails, among them women and minors.