TEL AVIV, November 17. /TASS/. No agreement on the release of at least some of the hostages held by the radical Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip has been reached so far, Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Friday.

"So far, there is no agreement on prisoner exchange. No decision on this matter has been made at this point. But these matters are being discussed and that is why we believe that if such an agreement is reached, very many families will be able to reunite with their relatives," he told a news conference.

According to Hanegbi, Israel will never pander to Hamas and will insist on its position that there will be no ceasefire in the Gaza Strip without the release of most of the hostages.

ABC TV reported on November 15, citing a senior Israeli official, that a deal to release the hostages could be announced in the next two or three days. According to sources of the Reuters news agency, Hamas agreed on the general terms of a deal with Israel, under which it would release about 50 hostages in exchange for a three-day ceasefire in Gaza. However, ABC quoted an Israeli official as saying that the main stumbling block is how many hostages Hamas is ready to release. Israel insists on the release of all the children, their mothers and their families, a total of about 80 hostages while Hamas says it will release only women and small children, or about 50 people.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.