Israel rejects ceasefire talks until Hamas provides list of hostages who are still alive, defying Biden
Israeli officials have rejected cease-fire talks in Gaza until Hamas provides a list of the hostages who are still alive — even as a growing chorus of leaders, including President Biden, calls on the country to agree to a 40-day pause in the fighting.
The proposed pause would allow both sides to engage in a fresh round of prisoner swaps, similar to a six-day truce brokered last November that saw more than 100 Israeli hostages released by the Islamist militant group.
But Israel withdrew a delegation that had been sent to Doha this week to discuss another such cease-fire, saying Hamas did not uphold an agreement to give a full accounting of how many hostages were still alive, according to Axios.
“The mediators promised that Hamas would give numbers and that didn’t happen,” an Israeli official said.
Egyptian and Qatari officials have since reached out to Israel to propose another sit-down next week, this time in Cairo, but a senior Israeli official said the country has declined.
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Israel hostage deal: What is it?
Israel and Hamas have reached a deal for the release of 50 hostages held captive by the terrorist organization in exchange for a 4-day pause in hostilities and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The cessation in fighting could be extended an extra day for every 10 hostages released by Hamas.
Three Americans could be released in the deal.
The Red Cross will visit hostages who have not yet been released.
Hamas said Israel would release 150 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal.
Hamas took 240 people hostage and killed over 1,200 in its October 7 terrorist attacks.
“There is no point in starting another round of talks until we receive the lists of which of the hostages are alive and until Hamas gives its answer regarding the ‘ratio’ that defines how many prisoners will be released for each hostage,” the outlet quotes an Israeli official as saying.
The cease-fire, which is being promoted by Biden as well as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, would also ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid can reach Gaza’s nearly 2.3 million residents.
According to the White House, Biden spoke individually to the leaders on Thursday, discussing the “urgency of bringing negotiations to a close as soon as possible and expanding the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” Axios reports.
Under the terms of the cease-fire framework the three leaders have proposed, Israel would release around 400 Palestinian prisoners — including some convicted of murdering Israelis.
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce, “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Gaza Health Ministry — which is controlled by Hamas — reported at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
Israel-Hamas war expands to all of Gaza: Here's the latest
- Fighting resumed in Gaza, on Friday, December 1, after Israel accused Hamas of violating their truce agreement by launching rockets at Israeli territory.
- Israel expanded war operations to southern Gaza, and troops have moved into Khan Younis, the second-largest city in the strip.
- The IDF has killed half of Hamas’ battalion commanders since the war began, with 5,000 Hamas terrorists killed so far.
- Harrowing details of Hamas’ abuse of Israeli hostages have emerged, which include drugging captives so they’d appear happy in front of the cameras when freed and burning child prisoners to mark them.
- In the US, Jewish students at top universities say they are “back to 1939” as they are targeted by a barrage of antisemitism with no institutional support.
In exchange, Hamas would free about 40 Israeli hostages, including women and female soldiers, men over 50, and men requiring serious medical attention.
The apparently stalled-out negotiations come amid a deepening humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza growing worse by the day.
On Thursday, more than 100 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured in a massive human stampede as thousands of people clamored for aid in the west of Gaza City, Hamas-affiliated health officials said.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 30,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict so far.
