Hamas says ready to free all hostages at once in Gaza truce phase two
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People in Israel's Tel Aviv standing in front of a wall covered with photos of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, since the Palestinian militant group's Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
PHOTO: AFP
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories - Hamas signalled on Feb 19 that it was willing to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swop during the next phase of an ongoing ceasefire.
Israel and Hamas are currently in the process of implementing phase one of the fragile truce, which has held since taking effect on Jan 19 despite accusations of violations on both sides.
Israel’s foreign minister said on Feb 18 that talks would begin “this week” on the second phase,
“We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages as in the current first phase,” senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
He did not clarify how many hostages were currently being held by Hamas or other militant groups.
Mr Nunu said this step was meant “to confirm our seriousness and complete readiness to move forward in resolving this issue, as well as to continue steps towards cementing the ceasefire and achieving a sustainable truce”.
Under the ceasefire’s first phase, 19 Israeli hostages have been released by militants so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails in a series of Red Cross-mediated swops.
The Feb 19 offer came after Israel and Hamas announced a deal for the return of all six remaining living hostages
Hamas also agreed on Feb 18 to return the bodies of eight dead hostages in two groups this week and next.
After the completion of the first phase, 58 hostages will remain in Gaza.
‘Room to pressure Hamas’
Mr Muhammad Shehada, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that after more than a year of devastating Israeli assault in Gaza, “Hamas wants to prevent the war resuming at any cost”, albeit with some “red lines”.
“And one of those red lines is that they should continue to exist, basically, whereas (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s position is that they should dismantle themselves,” he said.
Since the start of the war, Mr Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas’ capacity to fight or govern, something the militant group has rejected.
But the appearance that Washington is now in complete alignment with Mr Netanyahu’s government, as displayed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit this week, strengthened the Israeli premier’s hand in negotiations, according to Mr Michael Horowitz, an expert at the risk management consultancy Le Beck International.
It gives Mr Netanyahu “more room to pressure Hamas”, Mr Horowitz said, adding that US President Donald Trump “prefers that the agreement moves forward, but he’s leaving the field open to Netanyahu... as long as the ceasefire is maintained”.
‘Held onto hope’
Among the bodies Hamas said it would hand over on Feb 20 are those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, who have become national symbols in Israel of the hostages’ ordeal.
The boys’ father, Mr Yarden Bibas, was taken hostage separately on Oct 7, 2023, and was released alive during an earlier hostage-prisoner swop.
While Hamas said Shiri Bibas and her boys were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war, Israel has never confirmed this, and many supporters remain unconvinced of their deaths, including members of the Bibas family.
“I ask that no one eulogise my family just yet. We have held onto hope for 16 months, and we are not giving up now,” the boys’ aunt, Ms Ofri Bibas, wrote on Facebook late on Feb 18, following Hamas’ announcement.
Israeli authorities have confirmed that the remains of four hostages are due to be returned on Feb 20, although they have not officially named them.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has acted as go-between in the exchanges, called for a respectful handover of the hostages’ remains.
“We once again call for all releases to be conducted in a private and dignified manner, including when they tragically involve the deceased,” it said.
Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the Oct 7, 2023 attac
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
A woman in Jerusalem walking past pictures of Yarden Bibas, Shiri Bibas and Kfir Bibas, who were kidnapped during Hamas’ deadly Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
Soldiers charged
Since the war began, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Gazans, some of whom have been released in previous rounds of hostage-prisoner exchanges.
On Feb 19, the Israeli military said it had filed charges of “causing severe injury and abuse under aggravating circumstances” against five reservist soldiers for assaulting a Palestinian detainee in July 2024.
“The indictment charges the accused with acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee’s bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum,” a military statement said, adding the alleged abuse also caused cracked ribs and a punctured lung.
It said the incident took place at the Sde Teiman detention facility following an instruction to conduct a search of the detainee during which he was “blindfolded, and cuffed at the hands and ankles”.
The detention centre near the border was created early in the war to hold detainees from Gaza. AFP
