Hamas said on Friday it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals who had died in captivity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office cast doubt on the offer, accusing the U.S. and Israeli-designated terrorist group of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
They did not immediately specify when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and the four bodies would occur – or what it expected to get in return.
Alexander was 19 when he was abducted from his post on the border with Gaza in southern Israel during the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked the war.
It was not clear which mediators had proposed the release to Hamas. The United States, led by the Trump administration’s hostage envoy Steve Witkoff, has been pushing for a proposal that would extend the truce and see a limited number of hostage for prisoner exchanges.
Following the Hamas statement, Netanyahu’s office said Israel had “accepted the Witkoff outline and showed flexibility,” but said that “Hamas is refusing and will not budge from its positions.”
“At the same time, it continues to use manipulation and psychological warfare – the reports about Hamas’ willingness to release American hostages are intended to sabotage the negotiations,” read a letter from the government to hostage families.
It added that Israel’s negotiating team would return Friday from the Qatari capital of Doha. Netanyahu said he plans to convene his ministerial team on Saturday night to hear from the negotiators and decide on the next steps.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago but the pause in fighting has held – if tensely – for now.
The White House last week made a surprise announcement, saying that American officials had engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held U.S. policy of not directly engaging with the militant group. That prompted a terse response from Netanyahu’s office.
It was not immediately clear whether those talks were at all linked to Hamas’ Friday announcement about the release of the American hostage.
In a separate statement, Hamas official Husam Badran reaffirmed what he said was Hamas’ commitment to fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in all its phases, warning that any Israeli deviation from the terms would return negotiations to square one.
The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the first time since early in the war, and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.
Israel has been pressing Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for an extension of the first phase, and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
A group that represents the families of most captives said Friday that it welcomed plans to release any but that the focus must remain on returning all.
“Without a comprehensive deal, we risk sealing the fate of all remaining hostages,” the Hostage Families Forum said in a statement.
Two weeks ago, Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza and its more than 2 million people as it pressed Hamas to agree. Hamas has said that the move would affect the remaining hostages as well.
Hamas claims, with support cut off to Gaza, some 80% of the population has now lost access to food sources, with aid distribution halted and markets running out of supplies, while 90% are unable to access clean drinking water.
Hamas wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace.
The developments came as Jews began celebrating the Purim holiday, and Muslims continued marking the holy month of Ramadan. Some 80,000 Muslim worshippers prayed Friday at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, according to the Islamic Trust, which monitors the site. Israel is tightly controlling access to the prayers, allowing only men over 55 and women over 50 to enter from the occupied territory.
“The conditions are extremely difficult,” said Yousef Badreen, a Palestinian who left the southern West Bank city of Hebron at dawn to make it to Jerusalem. “We wish they will open it for good.”
Hamas accused Israel of escalating a “religious war” against Palestinians, casting the Al-Aqsa restrictions as “systematic targeting of Muslim religious practices.” The Israeli government did not immediately respond.
