The Israeli government approved this Friday, October 10, the agreement to release the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “The government has just approved the framework for the release of all hostages, dead or alive,” he said in a news release.
Of the 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 2023, most of them civilians, 47 remain in the hands of the Palestinian Islamist movement and detained in Gaza. Of the 47 remaining hostages, according to the Israeli army, only twenty are still alive.
Hours earlier, Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said he had received “assurances” from the United States, Arab mediators and Turkey, assuring that “the war is definitely over.”
Four days of negotiations in Egypt
Israel and Hamas signed this Thursday the first phase of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the release of hostages, after strong pressure from US President Donald Trump to end two years of destructive war in the Palestinian territory. According to an Israeli Government spokesperson, “the final version of the first phase was signed this morning in Egypt by all parties with a view to the release of all hostages” detained in Gaza.
The release of the captives “should put an end to the war,” declared the head of Israeli diplomacy, Gideon Saar.
This signing comes after four days of marathon indirect negotiations between the belligerents in the seaside resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt, in which several international actors participated, including the United States.
Donald Trump, who announced the agreement reached on the basis of a plan he presented at the end of September, could travel to the Middle East on Sunday. “We are going to try to get there, and we are working on the moment, the exact moment. We are going to go to Egypt, where (…) we are going to have an official signing” of the agreement, he said when meeting his government at the White House.
So when will the hostages be released? The US president said he “believes the hostages will return on Monday.” “This will include the bodies of the dead,” Donald Trump said.
In response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which left 1,219 victims, Israel launched a military campaign that devastated the Palestinian territory and caused, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, more than 67,183 deaths, mostly civilians. The UN has declared a state of famine in part of Gaza and its investigators say Israel is committing genocide there. Claims rejected by Israel.
Source: BFM TV
