NEW YORK, November 21. /TASS/. Nearly all the hostages Hamas will release is a deal with Israel is ultimately reached will be children, the CNN television channel said on Tuesday citing sources.

According to another source, there will be Israeli nationals and people with dual citizenship.

The NBC television channel reported earlier on Tuesday that Israeli and Hamas negotiators have reached a preliminary agreement on the release of hostages, which is to be approved by the Israeli government. According to the officials, the preliminary deal provides for the exchange of 50 women and children held hostage by Hamas for about 150 Palestinians kept in Israeli prisons. The exact number of people subject to the swap is still being agreed upon. The sides may also declare a four-or five-day ceasefire and organize deliveries of fuel to the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier that he would convene a meeting of the defense and security cabinets and the country’s government on Tuesday evening to discuss the situation around the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

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.