Protesters hold photos of hostages held in the Gaza Strip and 100 light sticks to symbolize 100 hostages held by Hamas during a rally calling for a hostages deal on Jan. 4, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Amir Levy, Getty Images via TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — Hamas disclosed a list of 34 hostages it’s willing to return to Israel in the first phase of a potential ceasefire in Gaza, which the U.S. wants to achieve before President Joe Biden leaves office in two weeks.
The Palestinian militant group circulated the list to Bloomberg and other media outlets, but didn’t clarify whether each person is alive or dead. The return of only living hostages in the first phase of a deal is one of Israel’s demands in fresh negotiations aimed at pausing the devastating war.
The U.S. says it’s working intensely to achieve a deal before Biden hands over to Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
There are still plenty of obstacles for the warring sides to overcome. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Monday saying the list originated with Israel, not Hamas. Israel gave it to mediators in July, he said.
“As yet, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment by Hamas regarding the status of the hostages appearing on the list,” he said. “Israel will continue to act relentlessly for the return of all of our hostages.”
At least two of the 34 people are dead, a Hamas official said.
As well as killing 1,200 people, Hamas took about 250 hostage when it raided southern Israel in October 2023, triggering the war. Israel’s air and ground assault on the Palestinian territory has killed more than 45,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Roughly 100 hostages are still in Gaza, though that figure includes both the living and the dead.
Hamas said it would need a week of ceasefire to reach out to operatives holding the hostages and learn about their condition, a request Israel has rejected. It’s also possible that some of them are held captive by militant groups other than Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and many other countries.
Other areas of contention include which Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli jails.
The negotiations have sputtered along since Biden unveiled a three-phase plan in May to end a conflict that ignited other fronts and put Israel and Iran — sponsor of regional proxy groups such as Hamas — on a collision course.
“We’re working very hard to bring that over the finish line,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said from the South Korean capital Seoul on Monday. “And what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks is a re-intensified engagement, including by Hamas, but we have yet to see agreement on the final points.”
Blinken said if the negotiations aren’t successful in the next fortnight, he hopes Trump will manage to get a ceasefire done soon after.
Hamas and Israel also disagree on what comes after the first part of a pause. Hamas wants Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza, while Israel says it wants to resume fighting to ensure the group is destroyed and unable to hold power in any part of the territory.
Both sides are mindful of the inauguration of Trump, who has warned there will be “all hell to pay” if hostages aren’t freed by the time he returns to the Oval Office.
“There are a number of issues on which there has been progress,” Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, a member of the country’s decision-making security cabinet, told Army Radio on Sunday. “With that, there are significant gaps on some of the issues. We hope that the gaps will be reduced in the discussions now being held in Qatar.”
The director of Israel’s spy agency Mossad, David Barnea, is preparing to go to the Qatari capital Doha on Monday or Tuesday, depending on developments, according to officials, another sign of possible progress.
Hamas has suffered huge losses in the past 15 months, but its still able to launch rockets at Israel, including six times in the past week. Those salvos were mostly shot down or fell into empty space, though raised alarm among Israelis who had assumed such attacks were no longer possible. On Monday, three rockets were fired with one hitting a home in the town of Sderot.
Israel, meanwhile, said three people were killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank. “Terrorists opened fire toward a civilian bus and vehicles,” the Israeli military said on Monday.
With assistance from Dan Williams and Courtney McBride.
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