Israel still hasn’t received list of living hostages from Hamas, official says

Gaps between Israel and the Hamas terror group over a possible Gaza hostage release and ceasefire deal have narrowed, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials’ remarks on Monday, though crucial differences have yet to be resolved, as fighting continues in the war-torn enclave.

Israel still has not received a list of living hostages from Hamas, an Israeli official with knowledge of the ongoing negotiations told The Times of Israel on Monday, saying, “We are waiting.”

“It’s slow progress,” the official said. “We would want to see it move quicker, the entire process, but there is absolutely progress.”

The official pointed to divisions within Hamas.

“We understand that [Gaza-based senior official] Mohammed Sinwar is no less of an extremist and zealot than [his brother, slain Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar,” the official continued, “and this is definitely causing delays.”

Another factor slowing down talks is the time it takes for Hamas officials in Doha to communicate with those in Gaza, said the official.

The official also alleged that Qatar, despite returning to its mediating role, was also getting in the way.

“Qatar doesn’t stop playing games and trying to carry out psychological warfare on Israeli society with all kinds of reports, half-truths, all kinds of things that they try to launch, experimental balloons, all kinds of things that don’t contribute to the negotiations,” he said.

The official explained that Israel is nevertheless willing to use Qatar as a mediator because it has excellent access to Hamas leaders.

Ceasefire terms unresolved

The official also insisted that Israel will not leave the Philadelphi Corridor as part of any partial deal or in a first phase of a deal.

“If we reach an end to the war, then maybe it will be possible,” said the official. “We’ll see what arrangements we reach, but I also find it hard to believe that we will withdraw.”

“We are ready to thin out our forces and redeploy our forces on the ground,” the official conceded.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian official familiar with the talks said that while some sticking points had been resolved, the identity of some of the Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in return for hostages had yet to be agreed on, along with the precise deployment of Israeli troops in Gaza.

The remarks corresponded with comments by Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, who said both issues were still being negotiated. Nonetheless, he said, the sides were far closer to reaching agreement than they have been for months.

“This ceasefire can last six months or it can last 10 years, it depends on the dynamics that will form on the ground,” Chikli told Israel’s Kan radio. Much hinged on what powers would be running and rehabilitating Gaza once fighting stopped, he said.

The duration of the ceasefire has been a fundamental sticking point throughout several rounds of failed negotiations. Hamas wants an end to the war, while Israel wants an end to Hamas’s rule of Gaza first.

“The issue of ending the war completely hasn’t yet been resolved,” said the Palestinian official.

Minister Ze’ev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Israel’s Army Radio that the aim was to find an agreed-upon framework that would resolve that difference during a second stage of the ceasefire deal.

Chikli said the first stage would be a humanitarian phase that would last 42 days and include a hostage release.

It is believed that 96 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.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

The war started with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people to Gaza as hostages.

Overnight strikes in Gaza

Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and during the day on Monday killed at least 20 people, Hamas-controlled Palestinian medics said.

One of the strikes hit a tent camp in the al-Mawasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight people, including two children, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, which received the bodies.

The Israeli military says it only strikes terror operatives, accusing them of hiding among civilians. It said late Sunday that it had targeted a Hamas operative in the humanitarian zone.

The strike was carried out in the Khan Younis area and the IDF said it took numerous steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike.

One of Gaza’s few still partially functioning hospitals, on the Strip’s northern edge, an area under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months, sought urgent help on Monday after claiming to be hit by Israeli fire.

“We are facing a continuous daily threat,” said Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. “The bombing continues from all directions, affecting the building, the departments, and the staff.”

An Israeli military spokesman denied that the hospital was being targeted. “I am unaware of any strikes on Kamal Adwan Hospital,” he told AFP.

Safiyeh reported that the hospital, which is currently treating 91 patients, had been targeted on Monday by Israeli drones.

“This morning, drones dropped bombs in the hospital’s courtyards and on its roof,” said Safiyeh in a statement. “The shelling, which also destroyed nearby houses and buildings, did not stop throughout the night.”

The shelling and bombardment have caused extensive damage to the hospital, Safiyeh added.

“Bullets hit the intensive care unit, the maternity ward, and the specialized surgery department causing fear among patients,” he said, adding that a generator was also targeted.

On Sunday, Safiyeh said he received orders to evacuate the hospital, but the IDF denied issuing such directives. It also said it was supplying fuel and food to the hospital and helping evacuate some patients and staff to safer areas.

Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.

The area has been the focus of an intense air and ground campaign by Israeli forces since October 6, aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.

Israel says its operation around the three communities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip — Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia — is targeting Hamas terror operatives and is aimed at preventing them from regrouping.

There are two functioning medical centers in the area, the Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals.

Israeli officials have accused Hamas operatives of using the hospitals as command and control centers to plan attacks against the military.

On Monday, the United Nations aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said Israeli forces had hampered efforts to deliver much-needed aid in northern Gaza.

“North Gaza has been under a near-total siege for more than two months, raising the specter of famine,” he said. “South Gaza is extremely overcrowded, creating horrific living conditions and even greater humanitarian needs as winter sets in.”

Pre-Christmas mass

Also Sunday, Latin Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa led a pre-Christmas Mass during a rare visit to Gaza that was coordinated with Israeli authorities.

Footage shared on social media showed the event.

GAZA

Cardinal Pizzaballa leads Mass with Catholics at Holy Family Parish.

Pope Francis yesterday criticised Israel for stopping Pizzaballa from entering Gaza with Christmas presents for children. pic.twitter.com/AA1Zap0AkK

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) December 22, 2024

His visit to Holy Family in Gaza City, the Palestinian enclave’s only Catholic church, came a day after Pope Francis issued a series of condemnations of Israeli strikes during the ongoing war against Hamas, and said the attacks had prevented Pizzaballa from entering the Strip the day before.

The pope’s comments prompted a sharp response from the Foreign Ministry, which said his comments were “particularly disappointing, as they are disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism — a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7.”

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 45,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the 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, 2023.

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.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 388. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry civilian contractor.