Israel says Hamas knows 'exactly' where hostages are after offer
Israel said Monday that Hamas had yet to clarify whether 34 hostages it said it was ready to free were dead or alive, throwing doubt on the group's assertion that it needed time to ascertain their fate.
The offer from Hamas came as Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip, where rescuers said 16 people were killed Monday.
In the occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since the Gaza war broke out, Israeli officials said three Israeli citizens were killed when gunmen opened fire on a bus and other vehicles.
Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been working for months to strike a deal to end the fighting in Gaza, but both warring sides have accused the other of derailing the negotiations.
Indirect talks that resumed last month continued over the weekend. A senior Hamas official said late Sunday that the group was prepared to release an initial batch of captives but would need "a week of calm" to determine whether they were still alive.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer, however, rejected that assertion on Monday.
"They know precisely who is alive and who is dead. They know precisely where the hostages are," Mencer told journalists in an online briefing.
"Gaza is a very small place. Hamas know exactly where they are."
In an earlier statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said "Israel has not received any confirmation or comment by Hamas regarding the status of the hostages", adding those slated for inclusion were part of a list "originally given by Israel to the mediators" last year.
- 'Ceasefire now' -
The Hamas official, requesting anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations, had also said the 34 hostages came from a list presented by Israel, and would include all the women, children, elderly and sick captives still held in Gaza.
"Hamas has agreed to release the 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead," the official told AFP, but the group needed time "to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead".
During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum called Monday for a "comprehensive agreement" to secure the release of hostages.
"We know more than half are still alive and need immediate rehabilitation, while those who were murdered must be returned for proper burial," it said in a statement.
Some relatives of hostages called for an immediate deal.
"If Hamas demands an end to the war, as it has demanded from the beginning ... then yes, in order to bring them (hostages) back, the war must be ended," Yotam Cohen, brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, told journalists in Tel Aviv.
Since the war began, there has been only one truce, in November 2023, that saw 105 hostages freed, including scores of Israelis freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians released from Israeli jails.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced confidence that a ceasefire deal would come together, but possibly after President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20.
"If we don't get it across the finish line in the next two weeks, I'm confident that it will get its completion at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later," Blinken said in Seoul.
He added there had been an "intensified engagement" by Hamas on reaching a deal.
- Strikes in Gaza -
President-elect Donald Trump, who takes over on January 20, has vowed even stronger support for Israel and has warned Hamas of "hell to pay" if it does not free the captives.
Israeli forces kept up their bombardment of Gaza on Monday, with the territory's civil defence agency reporting 16 people killed in strikes in the territory.
The UN's World Food Programme on Monday accused Israel of firing on one of its aid convoys in Gaza, saying at least 16 bullets hit the clearly-marked vehicles but no staff were injured, condemning it as a "horrifying" incident.
When questioned by AFP, the Israeli army said "the incident was reviewed, operating procedures have been clarified, and findings from the inquiry will be analysed".
In the West Bank, gunmen killed three Israelis when they opened fire on a bus and other vehicles near the village of Al-Funduq, Israeli emergency service providers said.
Later, to the north of Al-Funduq, the council in Hajja village said Israeli settlers set two vehicles on fire and broke windows of houses during an attack on the community.
Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli data.
Since then, Israel's military offensive has killed 45,854 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
