“Hamas’ ready for ‘full compromise’ with Israel on the deal to release all Israeli hostages captured on October 7. This was stated by a senior member of the Hamas Politburo, Ghazi Hamad, in an interview with NBC News.
At the same time, Hamad made a request, which according to NBC News the Israelis are likely to reject: Israel “to release all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention centers”. “We want these people to come back home,” Hamad said. “And we want our prisoners to come home now, too.” So I think now we’re ready for a full compromise, a full deal to exchange all hostages, military or civilian.”
According to Israel, Hamas has held 242 hostages since October 7.
Four hostages were freed by the group members themselves, and another was freed by Israeli forces.
Hamas claims it is hiding the hostages in “safe places and tunnels” in the Gaza Strip. Earlier, representatives of the Israeli army reported that among the hostages there are 20 children and from 10 to 20 people over the age of 60. There are also Russians among the hostages, their exact number is not known.
The Russian ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, spoke of three Russian citizens (also holding Israeli passports), the Israeli authorities – of six. Hamas said it had received a list from Moscow of the names of eight hostages.
The UN reported in July that Israel holds about 5,000 Palestinians in prison, including 160 children. Of these, according to the organization, 1,100 were detained without charge or trial.
In an interview with NBC News, Hamad called on Israel to stop its aggression against the Gaza Strip. Last week he also told Lebanese television channel LBC that Hamas “must eliminate” the Jewish state and that Hamas is ready to repeat its October 7 operation “for the second, third, fourth” time.
“We want to continue the fight against the occupation”, Hamad told NBC News. “It is our legal right.” Asked by reporters what Hamas would do in response to Israel stopping attacks on Gaza, Hamad said: “We want to stop the aggression, the killing and the slaughter of our people. And then we can discuss everything about the hostages, about the prisoners , for everything, but first they must stop the aggression.
Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel to meet with Netanyahu
He will spend about an hour with the Israeli leader, then meet with members of the “war cabinet”
