LONDON, January 31. /TASS/. The framework of a deal between Hamas and Israel envisages a three-stage exchange of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, including the military, as well as the bodies of Israeli hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, Reuters reported, citing a Hamas source.

According to the source, the potential deal provides for the exchange of Hamas-held women, children, the elderly, and the wounded at the first stage, and all Israeli soldiers, both women and men, at the second stage. The bodies of those dead are to be handed over to Israel at the third stage. A ceasefire is to be declared for the period of these three stages.

The AFP news agency reported on January 28 that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns had held a meeting in Paris with representatives of Egypt, Israel and Qatar. NBC News, in turn, reported that the parties had agreed on the framework of a deal between Hamas and Israel, which provided for a phased exchange of hostages held by Hamas militants and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as well as for pauses in fighting and humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza. On Tuesday, Hamas said it had received a proposal for a deal with Israel that had been hammered out at the Paris meeting.

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 240 Israelis. 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.

In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The deal stipulated the release of Israeli women and children being held hostage in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on December 5, 2023 that the movement would release no more hostages until Israel stops combat operations in the Gaza Strip.