War between Israel and Hamas: truce in Gaza, release of hostages… What do we know about accelerating negotiations

Negotiations to free 240 hostages held by Hamas look set to accelerate on Tuesday. They could be released in exchange for a truce in the Gaza Strip. Hamas “left its response to the Qatari brothers and mediators. We are getting closer to concluding a truce agreement,” movement leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Tuesday in a short message in Arabic sent by his office to AFP.

Negotiations to free hostages held in the Gaza Strip have “never been closer to an agreement” and are in the “final phase,” a spokesman for Qatar, the mediator in the case backed by Egypt and the United States, said on Tuesday.

“Near” release agreement

Sources in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest Palestinian militant Islamist group, said both movements would agree to an agreement, the details of which would be announced by Qatar and the mediators. “We are making progress,” confirmed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I don’t think it’s worth saying too much… but I hope there will be good news soon,” he said at a military base in northern Israel.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been working for weeks on an agreement to try to free hostages kidnapped in Israel by Hamas on October 7. “We have never been so close, we are sure. But there is still work to be done. Nothing will be done until everything is done,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. The journalist who asked him the following question: “Is an agreement on the release of the hostages close?” » US President Joe Biden responded in Washington: “I believe.”

Renewable five-day truce and no spy drones

Hamas spokesman Issat el-Reshik told Al Jazeera that the talks focused on the duration of the truce, the terms of aid delivery to Gaza and details of the prisoner exchange.

Two sources close to the matter told AFP on Tuesday that talks were centered on an agreement to release “50 to 100” hostages in exchange for the release of 300 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, including minors and women. The transfer will take place in stages at a rate of “ten” Israeli hostages to “thirty” Palestinian prisoners per day and will include the delivery of food, medical aid and fuel to the Gaza Strip. And above all, a “renewable five-day humanitarian truce.”

According to CNN, Israel has given in to Hamas’ long-standing demand to refrain from flying reconnaissance drones over the Gaza Strip for six hours a day during the truce.

Israel insists on “family reunification,” meaning that if a civilian is released, so will his partner, even if he is a soldier. However, Hamas, which opposes the release of the soldiers, rejects this point for now, according to the two sources.

According to CNN, the list of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel must be approved by the military cabinet and then the entire government before it is suspended for 24 hours due to the possibility of a legal appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court. Which in practice would prevent publication until Thursday.

“Sacred task” for Netanyahu

Relatives of the hostages met Monday evening with Israel’s prime minister and his “war cabinet” under pressure to return the kidnapped people. “The return of our hostages is a sacred and supreme task, and I am committed to it,” Netanyahu assured on social media. “We will not stop the fighting until we bring our hostages home, destroy Hamas and ensure that there are no more threats from Gaza,” he added.

The return of the hostages is one of the goals of the ongoing Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, launched after the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7.

The Red Cross wants to visit the hostages

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric met Monday evening with Qatari leaders as well as Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader based in the Gulf emirate, to “move forward in the humanitarian field.” issues related to the armed conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip. While the ICRC has assured that it will not be involved in these negotiations, it has insisted that its “teams are authorized to visit the hostages to ensure their well-being and to give them medicine, and to enable them to communicate with their families,” it said. press release.

According to authorities, 1,200 people were killed in Israel on October 7, the vast majority of whom were civilians. In response, Israel has vowed to “destroy” the terrorist group Hamas and is relentlessly shelling Palestinian territory. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli bombing has killed more than 13,300 people, including more than 5,600 children, according to the Hamas government. The United States fears these losses are underestimated, especially due to the density of cities in the enclave. Nearly 1.7 million of the 2.4 million residents have been forced from their homes by the war in the Gaza Strip, according to the UN. Since October 9, the area has been under a “total siege” by Israel, which has been blocking supplies of food, water, electricity and medicine, allowing aid to transit through Egypt.