CAIRO, February 24. /TASS/. Liberation of 40 hostages held captive in Gaza is being discussed at the Paris multilateral consultations on settlement in the Palestinian enclave as a part of the first stage of the potential agreement between the conflict sides, the Al Hadath reports.

According to the report, the issue of "liberation of 40 hostages, held captive by radical groups in Gaza, in exchange for 200-300 Palestinian prisoners, held in Israeli prisons" is being discussed at the negotiations involving representatives of Egypt, Israel, Qatar and the US. The TV channel points out that the most controversial point is "the number of detained Palestinians that should be liberated by the Israeli side during the first stage of the exchange deal."

It was reported a while ago that an agreement was achieved on the "updated framework of the exchange deal" during the talks in Paris. According to Al Hadath, "a progress has been achieved during the consultation that will make it possible to move on to discussion of the details of the deal." After this step, the sides will reportedly be able to move on to discuss the "number and the specific list of persons that are subject to exchange."

On February 23, the second round of multilateral negotiations on settlement of the situation in Gaza kicked off in Paris. According to Al Qahera Al Ikhbariya, these meetings’ main goals are "the achievement of agreements on a ceasefire in the enclave and on the exchange of hostages held by radical groups for Palestinian prisoners, as well as issues of delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza residents."

According to Al Jazeera, the Hamas movement and the Israeli authorities "intend to achieve a ceasefire and are ready to make concessions, but time is running out." Within this context, the mediators have repeatedly been calling to exert maximum efforts to achieve a ceasefire before Ramadan, the sacred month for all Muslims, which begins on March 11 this.