Hamas is looking to secure a “fair hostage exchange” as part of a deal with Israel to end the two-year war that’s devastated Gaza and destabilized much of the Middle East.
The Palestinian militant group’s negotiating team in Egypt will aim to “eliminate all obstacles” to a settlement, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesperson, said during a televised address broadcast on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera on Tuesday.
“At the forefront is a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Gaza, he added, while AlQahera News reported that Hamas is seeking guarantees that Israeli military action will end.
An agreement should also include the unconditional entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, an assurance that refugees can return and immediate permission to begin reconstruction under a Palestinian committee, Barhoum said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if his comments indicate Hamas won’t agree to release hostages unless all of the group’s conditions are met, a scenario that would reduce the likelihood of a deal being struck imminently. Israeli government spokespeople have yet to comment on the status of the talks.
The Iran-backed organization still holds about 20 people abducted during the October 2023 attacks that triggered the war, plus the remains of about two dozen more who have died in captivity. Under the terms of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan unveiled early last week, Hamas will release all of them in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Israel and Hamas have begun mediated peace negotiations this week in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh to build on the proposal. Trump said Sunday that “everybody has pretty much agreed” to the terms, but no deal has been officially struck. He said late Monday that an agreement is “very close”.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are due to travel to Egypt to take part in the negotiations, which follow Hamas’s request to discuss some elements of the U.S. president’s plan.
An Israeli official said the military had assumed a defensive posture in its ongoing campaign in Gaza City, while Hamas said airstrikes and shelling continued, killing dozens of people. Israel has in recent weeks focused its attention on Gaza’s de facto capital, saying the last Hamas strongholds are embedded there.
Hamas had agreed over the weekend to release the hostages “contingent upon the necessary field conditions for carrying out the exchange.”
Barhoum on Tuesday warned against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “attempts” to obstruct the talks this week, adding Israel has failed to achieve its goals in the war including returning the hostages by force.
Negotiations over a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, mediated mainly by Qatar and Egypt, have repeatedly fallen through over disagreements surrounding the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the disarming of Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union.
The ongoing talks come two years after thousands of Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting another 250. The resulting war has killed over 67,000 Gazans, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
— With assistance from Sherif Tarek, Dan Williams and Fares Akram.
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