Israel demanded that Hamas return 11 live hostages, including American hostage Edan Alexander, as well as the remains of 16 captives, in exchange for a continuation of the Gaza ceasefire, a Hamas official told Qatari-state media Al Jazeera on Friday.
The unidentified source also told the Qatari-owned outlet that the annex that Hamas submitted would amend the January 17 ceasefire and would not begin the second phase of negotiations.
The annex that Hamas submitted reportedly included a number of demands, including a complete Israeli withdrawal from Philadelphi; continued rehabilitation efforts for Gazan infrastructure in areas including communications, electricity, water, sanitation, and roads; more humanitarian aid to the enclave, including the continued operation of UN agencies; and a pause on all military activities in the Gaza Strip.
The source said that Hamas had linked its agreement to extend the ceasefire with the release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander alongside the bodies of four other dual-national hostages. After Alexander and the unidentified hostages’ remains were given back, Israel would release a number of Palestinian prisoners yet to be wholly agreed upon.
The Al Jazeera report claims that Israel is willing to release 120 prisoners serving life sentences, 1,110 prisoners that were arrested in Gaza during the course of the Israel-Hamas War, and the remains of 160 prisoners from Gaza in exchange for the Israeli hostages.
אלג’זירה מפי מקור בחמאס: ישראל דורשת תמורת הפסקת האש לקבל לידיה 11 חטופים חיים, בהם עידן אלכסנדר, ו-16 חטופים חללים; בתמורה היא מוכנה לשחרר 110 אסירי עולם ו-1,100 מחבלים שנעצרו במהלך הלחימה בעזה @JackyHugi
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The Israeli government voted to shut down the Qatari outlet in the country in May of last year, while the Palestinian Authority had frozen all activity of the Qatari state-run news source only at the beginning of this year, in a decision made by a specialized ministerial committee composed of the Palestinian Authority’s Culture, Interior, and Communications ministries.
Al Jazeera’s shutdown by the PA was condemned by Hamas, which claimed that the shutdown was a “blatant violation of press freedom and a repressive act aimed at silencing voices.”
Al Jazeera accused of incitement of clashes in Jenin
Al Jazeera’s shutdown in the West Bank was announced earlier this year. Fatah also accused the controversial news source of incitement amid the clashes between the Palestinian Authority security forces and terrorist factions in the West Bank city of Jenin.
Regarding the status of hostage Edan Alexander, Israel previously accused Hamas of deviating from the US proposal for a ceasefire extension after they announced their plans to release the Israeli-American hostage.
Sam Halpern, Amichai Stein, and Sarah Moskowitz contributed to this report.
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