Hamas accepts Gaza truce in principle and submits list of hostages it plans to release

Leaders of the Palestinian militant group relayed their position to Egyptian negotiators in Cairo

Israeli mounted police disperse a protest in Tel Aviv where activists were demanding the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. AFP

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Hamas has agreed in principle to an Egyptian proposal for a truce in Gaza of up to 30 days and the release of some of the hostages seized from Israel last year, sources told The National on Monday.

They said Hamas's initial agreement to the plan was delivered to Egyptian negotiators on Sunday, when senior leaders from the Palestinian militant group, Khalil Al Hayya and Zaher Jabareen, paid a lightning visit to Cairo.

The Hamas leaders also submitted a list of the hostages the group is planning to release as part of a swap with Israel for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The list includes captives who are US citizens or dual US-Israel citizens, the sources said. They did not say how many.

The sources said Hamas had started compiling a list of the estimated 100 hostages held by militants in Gaza, establishing their names, whereabouts, state of health and the number of those who had died while in captivity.

They said the headcount was a prelude to the release of some of the hostages under Egypt's proposed truce plan that includes the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and Israel's gradual withdrawal from a strip of land abutting the entire length of the enclave's border with Egypt, including the Rafah crossing, the only land exit from Gaza that is not controlled by Israel.

The development marks a change of heart by Hamas, which had in the past refused to entertain Israeli requests for information on the hostages.

According to Israel's military, about 40 of the 100 remaining hostages are dead.

Fighters from Hamas and allied groups took about 250 hostages back to Gaza during an attack on southern Israel in October last year, in which they killed 1,200 people. Most were released during a week-long truce in November last year or freed by Israeli forces during the relentless military campaign launched by Israel in Gaza in response to the attack.

Hamas wants Israel to free hundreds of Palestinians incarcerated in Israel on security-related charges in exchange for the hostages. They include high-profile figures from Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

There was no word immediately available from Hamas on the group's position on Egypt's truce proposal but the sources said Mr Al Hayya and Mr Jabareen on Sunday handed the Egyptian negotiators several amendments they would like to be adopted. They gave no details.

The sources also said Turkish officials have been in contact with their US and Israeli counterparts over plans to relocate senior Hamas officials and military commanders from Gaza to Turkey, where the group already has a sizeable presence. They said Israel had given assurances not to hunt down Hamas officials if they agree to leave Gaza and live in exile.

Hamas has previously rejected similar Israeli offers of safe passage out of the battered coastal strip, where Israel's military operations have to date killed more than 44,700 Palestinians and injured more than twice that number.

On Sunday, Qatar called for pressure to be applied on all sides to reach a ceasefire, saying the Israeli “bloodshed” against Palestinians must end now and without reservation.

“Pressure on both sides is necessary in any conflict,” said Majed Al Ansari, adviser to the Qatari Prime Minister and spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “You don't mediate between friends, you mediate between adversaries. You mediate between those who are aiming to basically either diminish each other or abolish each other. And this is what we are seeing right now in this country.”

Qatar's Prime Minister also struck an upbeat note on the prospects for a Gaza deal, saying momentum had returned to the talks after Donald Trump's election as US president last month, a shift from the previously held view that there would be no movement in the talks before the president-elect takes office next month.

“We have sensed, after the election, that the momentum is coming back,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Jassim, who is also his nation's Foreign Minister, told the Doha Forum for political dialogue on Saturday.

He said there had been “a lot of encouragement from the incoming administration in order to achieve a deal, even before the president comes to the office”.

He added: “We hope to get things done as soon as possible. We hope that the willingness of the parties to engage in good faith continues.”