Hamas has revealed its proposed terms for a hostage deal that was passed along to Israeli officials, including releasing 50 prisoners for every female soldier, and a permanent ceasefire, according to a report on Friday by Qatari stated-owned news source Al-Jazeera.
According to the report, Hamas wants its terms for a hostage deal to be carried in three stages, with each stage lasting 42 days.
Allegedly, the group demanded that during the first stage the IDF must withdraw from Rashid street and Salah al-Din street in Gaza, so that displaced civilians can return to their homes.
During the second stage, a complete and permanent ceasefire must be announced, and only then will Hamas begin to release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The report specified that for every female soldier released by Hamas, Israel must release 50 Palestinian prisoners. it also mentioned that 30 of the prisoners that Hamas demanded to be released are serving life sentences in Israeli prison.
Finally, the report stated that the third phase would include the “comprehensive reconstruction” of Gaza, but didn’t specify what this meant.
Israel has yet to confirm the demands presented by Hamas
Israeli officials received these alleged demands from Hamas via Qatari mediators on Thursday and are currently discussing them.
While Israeli officials have yet to publicly state what the demands from Hamas were, some officials have stated that Hamas’s stance is still far-fetched.
Until this point, the US has persistently said that the deal on the table involved a six-week pause to the war and the release of 40 hostages, primarily the female and elderly captives. The alleged proposal by Hamas would take three times as long to implement as any other ceasefire plan discussed by any of the other parties involved.
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.
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