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Hamas has said it is ready to free an Israeli-US soldier held hostage in Gaza and hand over the remains of four other Israeli-US nationals in what may be a breakthrough in ongoing negotiations over the fragile ceasefire in the devastated territory.
The militant Islamist organisation announced in a statement on Friday that it was ready to release the Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, who holds American citizenship, along with the remains of four other dual Israeli-US nationals.
Hamas also said it responded “positively” to a proposal presented on Thursday to resume stalled negotiations in Qatar but did not give details of what it might demand in return for the Israeli-US hostages.
The initial phase of the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect in January but lapsed almost two weeks ago. In recent statements, Hamas has said it wants Israel to implement the second phase of the ceasefire, which was supposed to definitively end the conflict.
Israel has so far refused to move to the second phase, and is calling for an extension of several weeks to the first phase instead, leaving open the possibility of a new offensive in the months to come.
But returning the US hostages held in Gaza has been a high-profile goal of the Trump administration and so the Hamas offer to free Alexander poses a difficult dilemma for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.
Netanyahu has consistently opposed any permanent end to the war in Gaza, in part due to domestic political considerations. However, the Israeli leader has made it clear that maintaining good relations with the White House is a priority.
After more than 16 months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt, Washington recently opened a direct channel of talks with Hamas with the aim of freeing US citizens abducted by the organisation during its surprise raid into Israel in October 2023.
Hamas abducted 251 hostages during its attack and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
In a social media post earlier this month, Donald Trump said there would be “hell to pay” if all the 58 hostages still in Gaza were not released. Less than half are thought to be still alive.
Official reaction from the Israeli government to the news of direct talks between the US and Hamas was limited to a single terse statement by the office of Netanyahu acknowledging the negotiations, but the mass-market newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Israel had been “stunned to discover that, behind its back, Trump’s envoy had flirted for weeks in Doha” with a senior Hamas official.
In a bid to pressure Hamas, Israel has cut off all supplies of goods to Gaza and on Sunday stopped any remaining electricity supplies from Israel to the territory.
Virtually the entire population of Gaza was displaced by Israel’s military offensive, which killed 48,500 people, mostly civilians, and reduced swaths of the territory to rubble.
The six-week first phase of the ceasefire led to the exchange of 25 living Israeli hostages and the remains of eight others, in return for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. It also allowed much-needed food, shelter and medical assistance to re-enter Gaza.
