JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas said on Friday it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals, hostages who had died in captivity. The announcement came talks continue in Qatar to try to broker the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
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The group in the Gaza Strip did not immediately specify when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and the four bodies would occur, and other countries party to the agreement did not immediately confirm the Hamas statement.
Alexander was 19 when he was taken from his base on the border with Gaza in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked the war.
It was not clear which parties had participated in negotiating the deal. The United States, led by the Trump administration’s hostage envoy Steve Witkoff, has been pushing for a proposal that would extend the truce and see a limited number of hostage for prisoner exchanges.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago.
The White House last week made a surprise announcement, saying that American officials had engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held U.S. policy of not directly engaging with the militant group. That prompted a terse response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
It was not immediately clear whether those talks were at all linked to Hamas’ Friday announcement about the release of the American hostage.
Qatar, or Egypt, no worse than Iran. How dare we allow Qatar to broker deals? They harbor Hamas terrorists. They may wear cleaner white shirts than Hamas devils, but they are just as evil. We make deals with devils while our children lie dead in terror tunnels they funded. All hostages must be returned together at one time. NOW
We knew this would happen Hamas outsmarted the trump team