Hamas makes formal offer for hostage deal and truce; Netanyahu rejects demands as ‘still absurd’
Netanyahu also said the IDF would prepare for a planned invasion of Rafah
Demonstrators rally in support of Hamas hostages near the United Nations in New York City on Jan. 12. Photo by Luke Tress
(JTA) — Hamas has issued a formal counter-proposal in ongoing talks over a temporary ceasefire and hostage deal, giving hope for the first time in weeks that more Israelis taken hostage on Oct. 7 could be released.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with family members of about 20 hostages on Thursday night, said the terror group was making “ridiculous demands,” leaving wide-open questions about whether progress in negotiations would continue.
“For the first time, we can envision embracing them again,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group created to lobby for the captives, said in a statement about their loved ones. “Please grant us this right.”
The counter-proposal comes after weeks of tense negotiations in which both Israeli and Hamas officials have expressed pessimism about reaching an agreement. Under the terms that Hamas has outlined, the group would release hostages who are women, children, elderly and sick in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 100 who have been convicted of murder. The women to be released would include soldiers, marking a change in Hamas’ stance.
To release the remaining male hostages, whom Hamas considers combatants regardless of whether they were captured while serving in the army, Israel would have to commit to a permanent ceasefire, withdraw from Gaza and release all of the Palestinian security prisoners it holds.
Netanyahu rejected the terms as “still absurd” during a meeting of his war cabinet on Friday. He also said the Israeli army would continue to prepare for a planned invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city that has become a refuge to nearly 1.5 million Palestinians including, Israeli officials say, members and leaders of Hamas.
Israeli officials believe there are 134 people being held hostage in Gaza, all but a handful taken prisoner on Oct. 7, and most of them remain alive. More than 100 hostages — mostly women and children — were released during a 10-day truce in November. Since then, Hamas has not released any other hostages. The Israeli army rescued two and killed three, while dozens of others have been revealed to have died on Oct. 7 or since.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
