TEL AVIV, April 10. /TASS/. The radical Palestinian Hamas movement refuses to free 40 hostages under the proposed ceasefire agreement with Israel, the Times of Israel reported.

Israel is demanding that the radicals return 40 living hostages in accordance with the new proposal on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the newspaper said. However, Hamas pointed out that in order to do so, it would have to liberate Israeli male soldiers, as the group no longer has 40 elderly, women and female soldiers. At the same time, the radicals refuse to free male soldiers captured on October 7, 2023, and are ready to liberate less than 40 hostages, the Kan radio station pointed out, saying that this is the biggest obstacle in the talks continuing in Cairo.

Qatar's Al Jazeera reported earlier, citing sources, that the participants in the talks had presented a new ceasefire proposal to be implemented in three stages. In the first stage, Hamas would release 40 Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for 900 Palestinian prisoners, including 100 sentenced to life in prison. According to the TV channel, other parameters of the potential ceasefire deal include the relocation of civilians to the northern part of the enclave and allowing 500 trucks with humanitarian aid in daily.

Another round of ceasefire talks in Gaza began on April 7. Early Monday morning, Al-Qahera Al-Ekhbariya TV reported that the sides had made significant progress in the talks, reaching consensus on a number of contentious issues.