Hamas is set to release 33 hostages during the first phase of an emerging ceasefire agreement being finalized by negotiators in Doha, according to two Israeli officials, the first positive sign in months that a truce in the war between Israel and Hamas could be in sight.
Officials expressed cautious optimism that a deal could be announced soon to halt 15 months of fighting that has destabilized the Middle East and devastated Gaza, allow more aid to the beleaguered Palestinian enclave and secure the return of dozens of hostages held by Hamas since its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to the Israeli government, Hamas and its allies still hold 94 of the 251 hostages captured in Israel, of which at least 34 are dead.
Israel believes that most of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the agreement are alive, an Israeli official told reporters on Monday, but the bodies of dead hostages are also likely to be among those released. The first phase of the agreement will take place during an initial 42-day ceasefire.
The Israeli official said the parties appear to be on the verge of an agreement and that Israel is prepared to immediately implement the agreement once it is signed.
US President Joe Biden expressed similar optimism in a speech on Monday focused on foreign policy, saying the United States was “pushing hard to get this deal done.”
“The agreement we have structured will allow us to free the hostages, stop the fighting, guarantee Israel’s security and significantly increase humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who have suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started. They went through hell,” Biden said.
Photos of some of the people taken hostage by Hamas in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 18, 2023. Leon Neal/Getty Images
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump told Newsmax that his understanding is that “there was a handshake and they are breaking up.” Trump’s new special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, previously told reporters that he was working alongside Biden administration officials during negotiations and hoped to get a temporary ceasefire agreement enacted before Trump’s inauguration on Monday. fair.
A diplomat close to the talks told CNN that a final round of outreach talks to finalize any issues was scheduled to take place in Doha on Tuesday. On the same day, some of the hostages’ families were invited to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Forum for the Families of the Hostages and Missing.
On Tuesday, protesters formed a human chain in front of the Israeli parliament, also known as the Knesset, to demand the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza. Many held large banners with the names and faces of prisoners, along with the words “DON’T LEAVE ME BEHIND!”
One protester, Shay Dickmann, said that a family member detained in Gaza had been released under a previous ceasefire and hostage agreement in November 2023, while another – his cousin – had been killed while in Hamas captivity in enclave.
“My family knows what it’s like when someone comes back alive from a deal,” he said.
“We are not going to give up on any of them. We want everyone to go home. And it seems like there’s a chance right now, but we can’t give up until we see them set foot here in Israel.”
Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission on Detainees and Former Detainees, told CNN on Monday that he was traveling to Doha to advise negotiators on the list of detainees to be released “in case the deal materializes.”
The release of the 33 hostages would be the first phase of the agreement to be finalized. Negotiations to reach the second phase – which aims to end the war – would begin on the 16th day of the agreement’s implementation.
Under the latest proposals, Israeli forces will maintain their presence along the Philadelphia Corridor – a narrow strip of land along the Egypt-Gaza border – during the first phase of the deal, officials said. The presence of Israeli troops along the corridor previously contributed to sinking a potential agreement in September, during the last round of negotiations.
Israel would also maintain a buffer zone inside Gaza along the border with Israel, the official said, without specifying how wide that zone would be – another topic of contention during the negotiations. A Hamas official previously told CNN that the group wanted the buffer zone to return to its pre-October 7 size of 300-500 meters (330-545 yards) from the border line, while Israel requested 2,000 meters.
Residents of northern Gaza will be able to freely return to northern Gaza, but an Israeli official said there will be unspecified “security measures”.
Palestinian prisoners found responsible for the deaths of Israelis will not be released in the West Bank, the official said, but rather in the Gaza Strip or abroad, following agreements with foreign countries.
CNN has reached out to Hamas for comment.
An Israeli official told journalists on Monday that a “breakthrough” in the talks occurred late on Sunday night, during the meeting between the director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, David Barnea, and mediators in Doha, in Qatar.
“There is talk of an agreement in the near future – it is impossible to say whether it is a matter of hours or days,” said the official.
The official said that Israel is prepared to quickly implement the agreement, but it must first go through the security cabinet and the government office. The government must also give opponents of the deal time to petition the Supreme Court.
“We are closer than ever to a deal, but mediators in Doha are still awaiting official responses from both sides,” said an Arab official familiar with the talks.
Speaking to CNN on Monday, former Israeli intelligence official Avi Melamed warned that even if a deal is reached, the continued presence of the Israeli military and Hamas in Gaza during the first phase of its implementation could provoke a rekindling. of hostilities.
“That part is very sensitive because it could potentially have the seeds that result – at some point, for whatever reason – in the rekindling or outbreak of fighting in Gaza. It doesn’t mean that this will necessarily happen, but it is something that could happen and that we must take into consideration”, he stated.
Melamed stated that, during the first phase of an agreement, neither party would like to give up their influence, but that in the next phase they would try to exhaust “any type of advantage they have”, including in the context of military capabilities in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Forum for Families of Hostages and Disappeared Persons said on Monday that it continues to have hope, but caution, given the news that an agreement is close.
“We continue to trust those who work tirelessly to bring our loved ones home, and we will not rest until the last hostage returns,” the group said.
Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza following the attacks on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage. Since then, the Israeli army has killed at least 46,565 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. More than 100,000 were injured.
CNN’s Lauren Izso contributed to this report.
