A senior Hamas official stated Monday that the group is willing to release all Israeli hostages if a “serious prisoner swap” can be agreed upon, along with guarantees that Israel will bring its military campaign in Gaza to an end.
The remarks came as Hamas leaders held talks in Cairo with Egyptian and Qatari mediators—two countries working in tandem with the United States to push for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious prisoner swap deal, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid,” said Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, in an interview with AFP.
However, Nunu accused Israel of obstructing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement.
“The issue is not the number of captives,” Nunu said, “but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war.”
“Hamas has therefore stressed the need for guarantees to compel the occupation (Israel) to uphold the agreement,” he added.
According to a report by Israeli news outlet Ynet, a new proposal has been presented to Hamas. The reported plan would involve Hamas releasing 10 living hostages in return for U.S. guarantees that Israel would proceed with negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire.
A previous truce, which began on January 19 and saw several exchanges of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, held for two months before collapsing. Attempts to revive it have faltered, reportedly due to disagreements over the number of hostages Hamas would release.
Nunu also reaffirmed that Hamas would not entertain demands to disarm, rejecting one of Israel’s key conditions for ending the conflict.
“The weapons of the resistance are not up for negotiation,” he said.
The war erupted following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israeli territory, in which 1,218 people were killed—most of them civilians—according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. During the assault, militants captured 251 hostages; 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.
Gaza’s health ministry reported on Sunday that 1,574 Palestinians have been killed since March 18, when the most recent ceasefire collapsed. That brings the total Palestinian death toll since the start of the war to 50,944.
