Hamas will release Israeli hostages if all Palestinian prisoners freed

FE Team | Published: October 29, 2023 23:38:59

WEST BANK, Oct 29 (Reuters/AP/AFP): Hamas was about to reach an agreement with Israel over the hostages held by the Palestinian militant faction but Israel had "stalled" on that possibility, a spokesman for the group's armed wing said on Saturday.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, also said in a video speech the group would only release all the hostages it has if Israel freed all Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas can also hold talks over a "partial" agreement over the captives, he added.
Qatar-led negotiations between
Israel and Hamas continue
Qatar-mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas aimed at de-escalating fighting in Gaza continued on Saturday, a source briefed on the negotiations said, even as Israel intensified its assault on the enclave.
Talks have not broken down, but are taking place at a "much slower pace" than before the escalation from Friday evening, the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of negotiations.
UN chief warns Gaza growing
more desperate 'by the hour'
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday warned the situation in Hamas-ruled Gaza is declining rapidly as he repeated desperate appeals for a ceasefire to end the "nightmare" of bloodshed.
"The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations," Guterres said on a visit to Nepal's capital Kathmandu.
"The number of civilians who have been killed and injured is totally unacceptable."
Biden says Mideast leaders must
consider a two-state solution
As the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war enters what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says could be a "long and difficult" new stage, President Joe Biden is calling on Israeli and Arab leaders to think hard about their eventual postwar reality.
It's one, he argues, where finally finding agreement on a long-sought two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict should be a priority.
"There's no going back to the status quo as it stood on Oct. 6," Biden told reporters, referring to the day before Hamas militants attacked Israel and set off the latest war. The White House says Biden conveyed the same message directly to Netanyahu during a telephone call this past week.
Israeli settler guns down
Palestinian in West Bank
A Jewish settler shot dead a Palestinian man harvesting olives near the West Bank city of Nablus, the man's uncle said Sunday. This brings the number of Palestinians reported killed by settlers to seven since Hamas's bloody incursion into Israel three weeks ago.
Tayseer Mahmoud said his nephew, Bilal Saleh, was working in the grove in the village of Sawiya with his wife and their four children on Saturday when a group of settlers attacked them. Saleh, concerned about the safety of his children, tried to leave the area, but a settler shot him in the chest, Mahmoud said.
Mahmoud said he didn't witness the confrontation but was close by and reached the scene within minutes of the shooting. Saleh died before he could be taken for medical care, he said.