Hamas is open to discussing “all ideas and proposals,” a senior official from the Palestinian terror group told AFP, as representatives arrived in Cairo on Saturday for talks with Egyptian negotiators on a possible hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The terror group has “not received any new offer or proposal so far,” the Hamas official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
But he said that Hamas was “open to discussing all ideas and proposals that lead to the end of the war, Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced, the entry of humanitarian and relief aid, and a serious deal to exchange prisoners.”
The New York Times reported last week that Hamas had been showing increased flexibility in long-stalled talks for a deal and may agree to Israel forces temporarily remaining on the enclave’s border with Egypt.
Jerusalem has insisted that troops remain in Gaza to prevent arms smuggling from Egypt and says it is prepared only for a temporary halt in its campaign to destroy Hamas.
The talks came after a ceasefire went into effect Wednesday between Israel and Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, after a US-led effort to broker a truce to halt 14 months of cross-border attacks. Hezbollah said the campaign, launched on October 8, 2023, was in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
This picture taken from a position in northern Israel shows Israeli tanks near the border with Lebanon on November 28, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa Marey/AFP)
Following the Lebanon deal, the United States announced a new diplomatic effort with Qatar, Turkey and Egypt to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages taken during Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel that set off the ongoing war and the Hezbollah attacks.
The Hamas onslaught saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Vowing to destroy the terror group and free the hostages, Israel launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza that the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 42,000 people in the Strip. That toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The only ceasefire so far, in November 2023, saw the release of 105 civilian hostages kidnapped by Hamas and its allies in exchange for 240 Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel.
Ditza Heiman, 84, held hostage since October 7, is transferred by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists to the Red Cross in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 28, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have led multiple failed efforts since the start of the year to reach a new ceasefire and hostage release.
US President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to see a Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal before he re-enters the White House in January.
Trump has confirmed having told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wants Israel to win the war quickly, though he has not publicly given a timeline.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Four hostages were released before the weeklong truce in late November. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
