Hamas to release US-Israeli hostage, bodies of 4 others

Hamas on Friday said it has accepted a proposal to release a US-Israeli hostages and bodies of four hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

The development comes at a time when Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks for the next phase of ceasefire in Gaza mediated by Egypt and Qatar and facilitated by the United States.

The Associated Press has reported that the US-Israeli hostage to be released is Edan Alexander, a soldier, four deceased hostages to be released are also dual nationals.

Hamas did not specify any timeline for their release and Israel or the mediating countries did not immediately confirm Hamas’ statement.

Separately, Hamas official Husam Badran reaffirmed what he said was Hamas’ commitment to fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in all its phases, warning that any Israeli deviation from the terms would return negotiations to square one, according to AP.

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Israel and Hamas are currently negotiating the second phase of the ceasefire deal agreed upon by the two sides in January. In this stage, all hostages are to be released and Israeli is supposed to withdraw from Gaza. However, the deal is under strain as US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have indicated that there would be no withdrawal. Instead, Trump has said that Israel would hand over Gaza to the United States and then all native Palestinians would be expelled and the United States would develop the strip into a resort town.

After Hamas announced the release of hostages, The Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu is scheduled to hold security consultations later in the day.

Separately, Walla reported that the four deceased hostages to be released are Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai, and Judy Weinstein Haggai.

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The newspaper further reported that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Special Envoy to Middle East, had conveyed a proposal to Hamas on Wednesday and the group had responded positively to it.

Under the proposal passed on to Hamas in talks in Qatar, the newspaper reported the sources as saying that the ceasefire in Gaza would be extended by several weeks in exchange for the release of at least five living hostages and bodies of several others.