Hamas is expected to reject any renewed effort to finalize a hostage agreement until such time as the war in Gaza ends, a security source told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
“It’s very clear that the hostage deal will only happen” when the war comes to a close, the source said.
Israel and the United States had hoped the IDF’s assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last month would open a new opportunity.
CIA Director William Burns held the first high-level round of talks on a deal in Doha last week with Mossad chief David Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani on the possibility of a new framework for a deal, to replace the existing May 31 one.
Among the possibilities on the table was a mini-deal that would serve as a confidence-building measure to allow mediators to build a channel of indirect communication between Israel and a new Hamas leadership.
Hamas political official Izzat al-Risheq on Saturday dismissed proposals of limited or temporary truces as “smokescreens.”
“We are positively open to any proposals or ideas that ensure the cessation of aggression and the withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza,” al-Risheq said in a statement.
Qatar, Egypt, US attempt to broker deal
Qatar and Egypt with the help of the US have been the main mediators for a deal to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages out of the 251 that were seized during the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Egypt has been in talks with Hamas in Cairo for the last two days, as part of its efforts to unite Palestinian factions, but there has been no reported progress on a hostage deal.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan spoke to Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday, explaining that his group had not received any new written proposals regarding a possible ceasefire in Gaza.
With US President Joe Biden set to leave the White House on January 20 when his term ends, his administration is running out of time to make a deal.
Stagnation in the talks has raised concern about the fate of the hostages. A security source told The Jerusalem Post that only some 51 are alive. The Hebrew daily Israel Hayom reported the same information on Sunday.
It’s a statistic which if true would mean that 14 hostages whose fate has been unknown or who were previously believed to have been alive are now dead.
Israel has a rigorous process by which it declares a hostage dead while still in Gaza. The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that it is standing by the data it released on October 7, showing that 65 of the hostages out of the 101 remaining in Gaza are still alive.
Reuters contributed to this report.