Gaza ceasefire talks: Doha suggests exchange of 200 Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages
Cairo has tabled a new initiative for a ceasefire in Gaza as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas get underway in Doha on Saturday. An Egyptian source explained to the BBC that the proposal involves a 45-60-day ceasefire and the release of eight to ten Israeli Hamas-held hostages in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners. This would also enable the delivery of vital aid to the Gaza Strip to resume.
He further stated that Israel’s reaction to the offer was pending, whereas Israeli media reported that the Palestinian prisoners’ release of 200 to 250 were “controversial and negotiable.”
The sources stated that Hamas would submit an exhaustive list of names of the dead and alive Israeli hostages and that Israel might redeploy its troops in the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian official who is close to the negotiations reported that “Hamas is being flexible on the number of hostages to be released, and on releasing them, but the problem has always been Israel’s intention to end the war.”
A Hamas official told Reuters that “Israel’s stance has not changed. They demand the release of their prisoners without pledging to end the war.”
The negotiations are taking place in the presence of mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States.
An Egyptian official informed the BBC that a “single package deal” was also discussed in a paper submitted by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
The health authorities in the Gaza Strip reported Sunday that at least 100 Palestinians were killed overnight in the Gaza Strip by Israeli airstrikes.
Medical sources reported that the new operations killed a number of women and children, injured dozens and destroyed several tents.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that hundreds of Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes over the past few days, while US President Donald Trump was on a visit to the Gulf states.
Three reporters and their relatives were among dozens who were killed earlier on Sunday. At least 20 members of another family were slain in northern Gaza, medical officials reported.
Reuters informed that medical officials stated that Zakaria Sinwar, a brother to former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was assassinated by Israel last October, and three of his children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their tent in central Gaza.
In a statement, Hamas referred to the “targeting of displaced people’s tents and setting them on fire with the innocent civilians inside a new barbaric crime.”
Hamas further said that “the US administration, by showing political and military backing for the terrorist occupation regime, has to own direct responsibility for this madness and targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Following a two-month lull in violence, Israel restarted fighting in Gaza on March 18 and took over vast portions of the strip.
The Israeli army has yet to release a comment on the recent operations, but in an earlier statement, it declared that it was conducting intense airstrikes against Gaza territories within its strategy to meet its military goals.
