Gaza, Palestine: Hamas, the resistance and political power in Gaza Strip just released a statement declaring its readiness to release all the Israeli captives in one go for the second phase of Gaza ceasefire deal. The move is to cement permanent ceasefire deal, and complete withdrawal of Israeli Occupation Force from the Strip.
“We are ready for a second phase in which the prisoners will be exchanged in one go, within the criterion of reaching an agreement that leads to a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from the Strip”, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said.
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Hamas confirms that it will release the bodies of four captives on Thursday and free six more living captives on Saturday. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says negotiations for the second phase of the deal “will happen this week”. Earlier, the number of Israeli captive released were three.
At the same time, in the same statement, the group also rejected Israel’s call for its disarmament and removal from the Gaza Strip.
“The occupation’s condition of removing Hamas from the Gaza Strip is a ridiculous psychological war, and the withdrawal or disarmament of the resistance from Gaza is unacceptable…Any arrangements for the future of the Gaza Strip will be through national consensus”, Qassem said in the statement.
On doubling the number of Israeli captives released form three to six, he said, “Doubling the number of prisoners to be released was done in response to a request from the mediators and to prove our seriousness in implementing all the terms of the agreement”.
The six will be the last living hostages under Hamas captivity, including Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengisto, who have been held in Gaza since before the war started on October 7, 2023, as per media report.
In exchange of the captives, Israel will release “a number of prisoners with life sentences and long sentences”.
Hamas said total of 800 Palestinians in Israeli prisons will be released in exchange of the Israeli captives. In its statement on the messaging app Telegram, Hamas said the the releasing Palestinians include 445 Palestinians detained during the 15 month long war – 51 serving life sentence, 59 with high sentence, 47 Palestinians who were arrested after being released in Giald Shalit deal in 2011, and 200 women and children arrested during the last war.
The group said the deal will also see the release of several senior commanders of the Al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank, most notably: Abdel Nasser Issa, Othman Bilal, and Ammar Al-Zaben, along with other key figures.
Additionally, the deal will include the release of the longest-held Palestinian prisoners: Nael Barghouti (44 years), Alaa Al-Bazian (42 years), and Samer Al-Mahroom (38 years) in “Israeli” prisons, said Hamas.
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Bodies of Israeli captives under Hamas would also be released. Deputy chief of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayya said that members of Yarden Bibas family who was released on February 1 would be among four bodies to be returned to the occupied territories.
Bibas family, including his wife and two children, aged four and nine months were killed during an Israeli airstrike.
Four bodies of the captive will be released, in exchange, Israel will release all women under 19, who were arbitrarily abducted from Gaza. Israeli officials said the delivery of the captives’ bodies was included in the yet-to-be-published annex to the truce agreement.
So far, Hamas has released 19 Israelis and five Thai nationals in exchange of 1,135 Palestinians held captive in Israeli prisons.
The ceasefire agreement appears fragile. With US President Donald Trump’s repeated calls to ethnic cleanse Gaza of its population, aiming to make the coastal enclave a ‘Riviera of the Middle East’, situation got further complicated. Reportedly, Israeli is preparing to make arrangements to permanently deport the Palestinians from the Strip. According to Hamas, Israel violated the ceasefire agreement more than 200 times.
