A senior Hamas official shared with the BBC a list of 34 hostages that the group says it is prepared to release as part of the initial stage of a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel.
The total number of surviving hostages remains unclear.
The list reportedly includes 10 women, 11 elderly men aged between 50 and 85, and several young children, some of whom Hamas had previously claimed were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Additionally, the list features several hostages described by Hamas as being in poor health.
Reports from Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, state that Israeli airstrikes over the weekend resulted in over 100 deaths.
Israel’s prime minister’s office has denied claims that Hamas provided them with a list of hostages.
Ceasefire negotiations resumed in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend but have so far shown little progress. According to Reuters, a Hamas official said that any agreement to release Israeli hostages would hinge on a deal for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and establish a permanent ceasefire. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that “the occupation continues to be obstinate over an agreement” and has not made any steps forward.
Earlier, Hamas released a video of Liri Albag, a 19-year-old Israeli captive, appealing to her government to reach an agreement. Albag was captured alongside six other female soldiers during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on the Nahal Oz army base near the Gaza border.
That attack, led by Hamas militants, resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel and the abduction of 251 others. Since then, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has reportedly claimed at least 45,805 lives, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
On Saturday, Israeli airstrikes reportedly killed 88 people, while on Sunday, health sources cited by Reuters reported 17 additional deaths in four separate attacks. The Israeli military stated that its air force had targeted over 100 “terrorist” sites in Gaza over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants.
