Report: Hamas Says ‘Not All 33 Captives To Be Released Are Alive’

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Hamas has changed its tune regarding the prisoner exchange, stating that it intends to include the remains of several dead hostages among the 33 captives it says it will release in the first phase of a hostage and truce deal, according to a New York Times report.

The report, which cited two people familiar with the talks, says that Hamas had informed mediators that not all of those to be released were still alive. The first phase was expected to include women, children, the elderly and ill.

Israel has previously insisted that the first stage include only living hostages and had reduced its demand from 40 hostages, with the understanding that not all those in that category were still alive.

Hamas said yesterday it had accepted a deal put forward by mediators. Israel, however, said that what Hamas put forward was significantly different from what Israel had agreed to previously. According to the Hamas statement, the first phase would include a 42-day truce period, with Hamas releasing 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of large numbers of Palestinian security prisoners from Israeli jails.

Moreover, Israeli media reports stated that Hamas has demanded guarantees from the US that the release of all the hostages would bring an end to the war, and this was a new demand that had not appeared in previous frameworks for a deal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says that the Hamas offer was far from meeting Israel’s essential demands, but that it would send negotiators to continue talks with the US, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators.

It is believed that 128 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 12 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 35 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.