A senior Hamas official said Monday the group is willing to release all Israeli hostages if Israel agrees to a comprehensive prisoner exchange and provides guarantees to end the genocidal war in Gaza.
Hamas left Cairo on Monday after negotiations with mediators from Egypt and Qatar – two nations working alongside the U.S. to broker a cease-fire in the besieged territory.
"We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious prisoner swap deal, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid," Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, told AFP.
However, he accused Israel of obstructing progress toward a cease-fire.
"The issue is not the number of captives," al-Nunu said, "but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war."
"Hamas has therefore stressed the need for guarantees to compel the occupation (Israel) to uphold the agreement," he added.
Israeli news website Ynet reported Monday that a new proposal had been put to Hamas.
Under the deal, the group would release 10 living hostages in exchange for U.S. guarantees that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the cease-fire.
The first phase of the cease-fire, which began on Jan. 19 and included multiple hostage-prisoner exchanges, lasted two months before disintegrating.
Efforts toward a new truce have stalled, reportedly over disputes regarding the number of hostages to be released by Hamas, with 58 people still held in the Palestinian territory.
Pointing to those failed negotiations, Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it was against talks aimed at phased hostage releases.
"The phases method wastes valuable time and jeopardises all of the hostages", the group representing relatives of hostages said.
"We demand to choose the necessary, feasible and appropriate solution: ending the war and returning all the hostages together, in one immediate phase."
Meanwhile, al-Nunu said that Hamas would not disarm, a key condition that Israel has set for ending the war.
"The weapons of the resistance are not up for negotiation," he added.
Also Monday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani affirmed their absolute rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from their land.
The two leaders discussed during their meeting in Doha the latest efforts to restore a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
According to the statement, el-Sissi and Al Thani exchanged views on how to address the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza through securing sufficient aid flows for Palestinians in the enclave.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 39 more Palestinians in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll from Israel's genocidal war since October 2023 to 50,983, the Health Ministry said Monday.
A ministry statement said that 118 more injured people were also transferred to hospitals, taking the number of injuries to 116,274 in the Israeli onslaught.
"Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them," it added.
The war in Gaza broke out after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion of southern Israel, which caused around 1,200 deaths and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli official figures.
