Gaza: Hamas says he is ready for an agreement that provides the release of hostages and a 5 -year truce

Hamas is ready to conclude an agreement that provides liberation once from all hostages that are still preserved in Gaza and a five -year -old truce with Israel, to end the current war, said an official of the movement on Saturday, April 26.

“Hamas is ready for an exchange of prisoners (Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, editor’s note) in a single operation and for a five -year truce,” said this AFP official to the AFP.

These words arise as a delegation of the Palestinian Islamist movement must meet the mediators this Saturday in Cairo. It is not clear at this stage if the idea of ​​a long truce has been proposed by Hamas himself or the Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

On April 17, Hamas, who said he opposed a “partial” agreement, had rejected an Israeli proposal that provided in particular a 45 -day truce in exchange for the return of ten live hostages.

In his vision of the “global” agreement that he is looking for, the movement requires a trial of hostilities, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and the entry of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Return of hostages and disarmament

Israel, meanwhile, demands the return of all hostages and the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. This last point is a “red line” for movement.

The war was caused by the unprecedented attack of Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 58 are still retained in Gaza, 34 of which they died, according to the Israeli army. A truce from January 19 to March 17 allowed the return to 33 hostages, including eight dead, in exchange for the departure of around 1,800 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

According to the figures published on Friday by the Ministry of Health of Hamas, at least 2,062 Palestinians have been killed since the resumption of the Israeli offensive on March 18, which takes the number of deaths to Gaza from the beginning of the war.