A senior Hamas official said the Islamist militant group is prepared to release all Israeli soldiers it is holding in exchange for all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former Gaza health minister, said the Hamas group is continuing “difficult negotiations” after agreeing Thursday to continue the truce after a six-day pause in fighting.
We are ready to release all the soldiers in exchange for all prisoners of war,” Naim, who is visiting South Africa, told a news conference in Cape Town.
Gaza militants took about 240 prisoners from southern Israel in an unprecedented attack on October 7.
In response, Israel launched airstrikes and ground operations that the Hamas government said killed nearly 15,000 people.
Under the ceasefire agreement, 60 Israeli hostages and 180 Palestinian prisoners have been released so far under Qatari mediation, with the U.S. and Egypt also playing a supporting role.
Among the hostages still held by Hamas are soldiers excluded from the exchange agreement, and the Islamist movement may use them as a key bargaining chip.
According to activist groups, there are more than 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, many of them far more prominent than the young men and women who have been released so far.
In 2011, more than 1,000 Palestinians were exchanged for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier taken prisoner by Hamas five years earlier.
