Hamas, Israel closing on five-day pause in exchange for hostages

The reported developments involve the freezing of all hostilities while an ‘initial 50 or more’ of the 240 hostages kidnapped from southern Israel are released in batches.

A child waves the flag of truce as Palestinians flee Gaza City. Picture: AFP

Israel and Hamas are reportedly “close” to a detailed agreement to free dozens of women and children hostages being held by the terrorists in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.

The developments, reported by the Washington Post on Sunday, involve the freezing of all hostilities for at least five days while an “initial 50 or more” of the 240 hostages kidnapped from southern Israel during Hamas’ orchestrated and surprise attack on October 7, during which they killed 1200 mostly civilians, are released in batches every 24 hours.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Israel has been insisting during the negotiations that groups of families are to be released together and not split up.

There are 40 children among the hostages, the youngest kidnapped being Kfir Bibas, who is now 10 months old. One of the hostages who was heavily pregnant when captured would have given birth to a newborn in captivity, the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum says.

The fresh breakthrough comes after five weeks of anguish for the hostage families, and the resulting Israeli massive bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip which has killed 12,300 people, according to the Hamas government.

Qatar has led negotiations for weeks for the release of the hostages, but last Wednesday’s raid on the Al-Shifa hospital, where Israeli forces failed to find any of the Israelis, has become a shifting point in the discussions.

“We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get to a deal,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on X, formerly Twitter.

The Post said a detailed, six-page agreement could mean hostage releases begin within days and could also lead to the first sustained pause in the conflict in Gaza.

Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said all parties would halt combat operations for at least five days while some hostages were released in batches, with overhead surveillance monitoring movement to police the pause.

US President Joe Biden’s main adviser on the Middle East, Brett McGurk said on Saturday there would be a “significant pause” in the war if hostages held by militants in Gaza were freed.

“The surge in humanitarian relief, the surge in fuel, the pause... will come when hostages are released,” he told a security conference in Bahrain, adding that such a release would bring about “a significant pause... and a massive surge of humanitarian relief.”

As the hostage negotiations continue, the Qataris said challenges in the high stakes negotiations are “very minor”, saying the blocks “are more logistical, they are more practical”. Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thanis, at a press conference with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said: “The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor compared to the bigger challenges, they are more logistical, they are more practical” while expressing more confidence “we are close enough to reach a deal”.

The increasingly desperate families, who continued to rally in Tel Aviv, will meet with the Israeli War Cabinet on Monday evening to be updated about the latest developments, a spokesman for the Hostages Families says.

One of the hostage family members, Avichai Brodutch, whose wife Hagar and three children — Ofri, 10, Yuval, eight, and Uriah, four — were kidnapped said: “The time that passes for a child in captivity feels like an eternity. The purpose of the war in Gaza must be the return of all of the hostages, not revenge. There will be no recovery for the State of Israel unless we bring them home now.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS on the weekend that one of the reasons the Israeli military entered the Al-Shifi hospital last Wednesday was the “strong indication” Israeli hostages were being held there. Mr Netanyahu said “this was one of the reasons we entered”, but said none were there. “If there were, they were taken out.”

The bodies of two hostages, Yehudit Weiss, 65, and Noa Marciano, 19, were found in the vicinity of the hospital.

Last Tuesday Shin Bet security service head Ronen Bar had travelled to Cairo and met Egyptian Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamel to discuss the emerging hostage release deal.

On Saturday, Mr Netanyahu was asked about such a deal, which was first publicly mooted last Wednesday, involving the release of some 50 hostages but he responded: “there was no deal on the table”.

Last week Reuters quoted a Qatari source saying the release of the hostages may involve Israel releasing a number of jailed Palestinian women and minors.

Four women including two Americans were released before the Israel Defence Forces began the ground incursion into northern Gaza on October 27.