Hamas announces that it will not release more hostages until the war with Israel ends

The 'number two' of Hamas, Salé al Aruri, assured this Saturday that there will be no new exchanges of hostages for prisoners until the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip stops.

“Right now there are no negotiations for a truce. There will be no exchange of prisoners until the aggression ceases and there is a comprehensive and definitive ceasefire,” Al Aruri said in statements to the Qatari channel Al Jazeera.

“The occupation insists that there are still women and children being held, but we have handed them all over. “The prisoners remaining in Gaza are male soldiers and civilians who have been in the occupation army,” he noted.

Al Aruri, considered the leader of Hamas in the West Bank, has pointed out that “our Zionist prisoners are not going to be released until all our prisoners are free and there is a ceasefire.”. “The resistance is prepared for all Israeli military scenarios, whether they are war on land, in the air or otherwise,” he stressed.

This same Saturday, Israel announced the withdrawal of a team of negotiators that was discussing in the capital of Qatar, Doha, the possibility of reactivating the truce with Hamas in force in Gaza until this past Friday, after regretting that the talks are currently going through a “deadlock” over the circumstances of new exchanges between hostages and prisoners.

“Due to the blockage in the talks and on instructions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of (Israel's foreign intelligence service) Mossad, David Barnea, has ordered his Doha team to return to Israel,” the agency said. Office of the Prime Minister of Israel in a statement collected by the Israeli news portal Walla.

In the statement, the Office accuses the Hamas movement of “breaching its part of the agreement” regarding the exchange, “which included the release of all women and children, included on a list that was sent to Hamas, and to whom Hamas gave its approval.”

However, negotiations would continue at “low intensity” with a Shin Bet delegation present in Cairo, according to Israeli public television Kan, citing sources from the Israeli apparatus.. There would also be a Qatari delegation traveling to Israel.

The goal would be to leave a door open for Hamas to release the women and children that Israel says it is still holding, ten in total, and a one-day ceasefire would be granted in exchange.

The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing Egyptian sources, that there is a Qatari delegation in Israel and that there are Egyptians in Gaza to keep communication lines open.

“We continue talking and giving reports every hour. Negotiations only end when the parties stop talking.. That is not happening here,” explained the Egyptian source.

A total of 136 hostages remained in the hands of Hamas and associated Palestinian militias at the time of the end of the truce on Friday.. Ten of the hostages are 75 years old or older. The vast majority of the hostages, 125, are Israelis. Eleven are foreign nationals, including eight from Thailand.

According to official Israeli sources on condition of anonymity to the Walla portal, the fundamental obstacle lies in the liberation of women.. “We will not discuss anything about the plan until the women are released. If Hamas abides by the agreement and frees the women, it will be possible to resume negotiations under fire,” they say.

Israeli Kan television has indicated that Hamas has proposed the release of the oldest hostages, but that for this it is waiting for the release of “relevant” prisoners who are locked up in Israeli prisons, since they would also be the oldest.