TEL AVIV, February 4. /TASS/. Israel is not ready for a hostage deal with Hamas at any cost, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"Attempt to release the hostages never stop. As I have already said, we will not agree on any deal [with Hamas] or a deal at any cost. Many things that are said in the mass media, for instance, that we have allegedly agreed to release terrorists [are not true]. We will never agree on this," he said.

After a meeting with the families of the Israeli hostages on January 31, Netanyahu said that he was working on another hostage release agreement, but not at any cost. He stressed that Israel had its redlines and it would not end the war in the Gaza Strip and would not release thousands of terrorists from Israeli prisons.

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. Large-scale combat operations have continued in the Gaza Strip since then. The parties agreed upon a humanitarian pause in late November. During the week-long humanitarian pause, according to the Israeli authorities, 110 hostages held in Gaza since October 7 were released. However, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as many as 136 people are still held hostage.

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. The office of the Israeli prime minister described the meeting as constructive, noting however that considerable differences had remained.