Hamas lists 34 hostages it may release under the ceasefire

A senior Hamas official has shared with the BBC a list of 34 hostages the Palestinian group says it is willing to release in the first stage of a potential ceasefire deal with Israel.

It is not clear how many hostages remain alive.

Among those named are 10 female and 11 elderly male hostages aged between 50 and 85, as well as children who Hamas previously said were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

A number of hostages that Hamas says are ill are also included in the list.

Reports from Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli airstrikes killed more than 100 people there over the weekend.

The Israeli prime minister’s office denied reports that Hamas had provided Israel with a list of hostages.

Ceasefire negotiations resumed in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend, but the talks do not appear to have made any significant progress.

A Hamas official told the Reuters news agency that any deal to return the Israeli hostages would depend on an agreement for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire or end to the war.

“However, until now, the occupation continues to be stubborn about an agreement on the issues of ceasefire and withdrawal, and has not taken a step forward,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

before, Hamas released a video of 19-year-old Israeli prisoner Liri Albag urged his government to make a deal.

She was captured along with six other female recruit soldiers at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

On that day, militants led by Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas had killed at least 45,805 people in Gaza as of Saturday, according to the Hamas territory’s health ministry.

The same source says that Israeli airstrikes killed 88 people in Gaza on Saturday itself while on Sunday, the Reuters news agency cited health sources as saying that another 17 had died in four separate Israeli attacks on the territory.

Israel’s military said on Sunday that its air force had attacked more than 100 “terrorist” sites across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants.