TEL AVIV, March 15. /TASS/. The proposal on a deal to release Israeli hostages, recently revealed by Palestine’s radical movement Hamas, is unrealistic, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
"Hamas keeps sticking to unrealistic demands. An update on the issue will be presented to the military and security cabinets on Friday," the premier's office said in a statement.
According to the Kan radio, Hamas submitted its list of preconditions to Qatari mediators on Thursday evening. The document was reportedly delivered to the Israeli team of negotiators after the military cabinet’s meeting, so the ministers will gather again tomorrow.
A source familiar with the document’s contents said the new proposals reflected a certain "positive trend" and "an agreement is possible." According to Kan, Israeli views the latest developments "with cautious optimism."
On March 12, the Al Arabiya television channel reported, citing a source in the Hamas leadership, that Hamas had accepted a US-proposed ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip. According to the source, the US initiative envisages the cessation of hostilities in the enclave and gradual return of displaced persons in exchange for release of some hostages, captured by radicals during their October 2023 attack on Israel. The Hamas delegation is expected to arrive in Cairo within days to discuss details of the deal, the source said. On the following day, the movement officially refuted this information.
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, including women, children and the elderly. 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.
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 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.