Israel nonetheless hasn’t obtained listing of dwelling hostages from Hamas, official says

Gaps between Israel and the Hamas terror group over a doable Gaza hostage launch and ceasefire deal have narrowed, in line with Israeli and Palestinian officers’ remarks on Monday, although essential variations have but to be resolved, as combating continues within the war-torn enclave.

Israel nonetheless has not obtained a listing of dwelling hostages from Hamas, an Israeli official with data of the continued negotiations informed The Times of Israel on Monday, saying, “We are ready.”

“It’s gradual progress,” the official stated. “We would need to see it transfer faster, your complete course of, however there’s completely progress.”

The official pointed to divisions inside Hamas.

“We perceive that [Gaza-based senior official] Mohammed Sinwar isn’t any much less of an extremist and zealot than [his brother, slain Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar,” the official continued, “and that is positively inflicting delays.”

Another issue slowing down talks is the time it takes for Hamas officers in Doha to speak with these in Gaza, stated the official.

The official additionally alleged that Qatar, regardless of returning to its mediating position, was additionally getting in the best way.

A rally calling for the discharge of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, December 21 2024 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

“Qatar doesn’t cease enjoying video games and making an attempt to hold out psychological warfare on Israeli society with all types of reviews, half-truths, all types of issues that they attempt to launch, experimental balloons, all types of issues that don’t contribute to the negotiations,” he stated.

The official defined that Israel is nonetheless prepared to make use of Qatar as a mediator as a result of it has wonderful entry to Hamas leaders.

Ceasefire phrases unresolved

The official additionally insisted that Israel won’t depart the Philadelphi Corridor as a part of any partial deal or in a primary part of a deal.

“If we attain an finish to the struggle, then perhaps will probably be doable,” stated the official. “We’ll see what preparations we attain, however I additionally discover it arduous to consider that we’ll withdraw.”

“We are able to skinny out our forces and redeploy our forces on the bottom,” the official conceded.

The Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza’s Rafah, September 12, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

Meanwhile, a Palestinian official acquainted with the talks stated that whereas some sticking factors had been resolved, the identification of a few of the Palestinian prisoners to be launched by Israel in return for hostages had but to be agreed on, together with the exact deployment of Israeli troops in Gaza.

The remarks corresponded with feedback by Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, who stated each points had been nonetheless being negotiated. Nonetheless, he stated, the edges had been far nearer to reaching settlement than they’ve been for months.

“This ceasefire can final six months or it may final 10 years, it depends upon the dynamics that may type on the bottom,” Chikli informed Israel’s Kan radio. Much hinged on what powers can be working and rehabilitating Gaza as soon as combating stopped, he stated.

The length of the ceasefire has been a basic sticking level all through a number of rounds of failed negotiations. Hamas desires an finish to the struggle, whereas Israel desires an finish to Hamas’s rule of Gaza first.

“The challenge of ending the struggle utterly hasn’t but been resolved,” stated the Palestinian official.

Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli speaks within the meeting corridor of the Knesset in Jerusalem, on June 25, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Minister Ze’ev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s safety cupboard, informed Israel’s Army Radio that the purpose was to search out an agreed-upon framework that will resolve that distinction throughout a second stage of the ceasefire deal.

Chikli stated the primary stage can be a humanitarian part that will final 42 days and embody a hostage launch.

It is believed that 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 stay in Gaza, together with the our bodies of not less than 34 confirmed lifeless by the IDF.

Hamas launched 105 civilians throughout a weeklong truce in late November, and 4 hostages had been launched earlier than that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the our bodies of 38 hostages have additionally been recovered, together with three mistakenly killed by the Israeli army as they tried to flee their captors.

The struggle began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel, by which terrorists killed some 1,200 individuals, principally civilians, and took 251 individuals to Gaza as hostages.

Overnight strikes in Gaza

Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in a single day and throughout the day on Monday killed not less than 20 individuals, Hamas-controlled Palestinian medics stated.

One of the strikes hit a tent camp within the al-Mawasi space, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight individuals, together with two youngsters, in line with Nasser Hospital within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, which obtained the our bodies.

The Israeli army says it solely strikes terror operatives, accusing them of hiding amongst civilians. It stated late Sunday that it had focused a Hamas operative within the humanitarian zone.

The strike was carried out within the Khan Younis space and the IDF stated it took quite a few steps to mitigate civilian hurt within the strike.

Palestinians pray over the our bodies of individuals killed in an Israeli strike earlier than the funeral exterior the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah within the Gaza Strip, December 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

One of Gaza’s few nonetheless partially functioning hospitals, on the Strip’s northern edge, an space underneath intense Israeli army stress for practically three months, sought pressing assistance on Monday after claiming to be hit by Israeli hearth.

“We are going through a steady each day menace,” stated Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. “The bombing continues from all instructions, affecting the constructing, the departments, and the workers.”

An Israeli army spokesman denied that the hospital was being focused. “I’m unaware of any strikes on Kamal Adwan Hospital,” he informed AFP.

Safiyeh reported that the hospital, which is presently treating 91 sufferers, had been focused on Monday by Israeli drones.

“This morning, drones dropped bombs within the hospital’s courtyards and on its roof,” stated Safiyeh in a press release. “The shelling, which additionally destroyed close by homes and buildings, didn’t cease all through the evening.”

The shelling and bombardment have precipitated intensive injury to the hospital, Safiyeh added.

“Bullets hit the intensive care unit, the maternity ward, and the specialised surgical procedure division inflicting worry amongst sufferers,” he stated, including {that a} generator was additionally focused.

The Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia within the northern Gaza Strip, on December 6, 2024. (AFP)

On Sunday, Safiyeh stated he obtained orders to evacuate the hospital, however the IDF denied issuing such directives. It additionally stated it was supplying gas and meals to the hospital and serving to evacuate some sufferers and workers to safer areas.

Palestinians accuse Israel of looking for to completely depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.

The space has been the main focus of an intense air and floor marketing campaign by Israeli forces since October 6, geared toward stopping Hamas from regrouping.

Israel says its operation across the three communities on the northern fringe of the Gaza Strip — Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia — is focusing on Hamas terror operatives and is geared toward stopping them from regrouping.

There are two functioning medical facilities within the space, the Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals.

Israeli officers have accused Hamas operatives of utilizing the hospitals as command and management facilities to plan assaults in opposition to the army.

Troops of the Kfir Brigade function in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, in a handout photograph issued on December 20, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

On Monday, the United Nations support chief, Tom Fletcher, stated Israeli forces had hampered efforts to ship much-needed support in northern Gaza.

“North Gaza has been underneath a near-total siege for greater than two months, elevating the specter of famine,” he stated. “South Gaza is extraordinarily overcrowded, creating horrific dwelling situations and even better humanitarian wants as winter units in.”

Pre-Christmas mass

Also Sunday, Latin Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa led a pre-Christmas Mass throughout a uncommon go to to Gaza that was coordinated with Israeli authorities.

Footage shared on social media confirmed the occasion.

His go to to Holy Family in Gaza City, the Palestinian enclave’s solely Catholic church, got here a day after Pope Francis issued a collection of condemnations of Israeli strikes throughout the ongoing struggle in opposition to Hamas, and stated the assaults had prevented Pizzaballa from getting into the Strip the day earlier than.

The pope’s feedback prompted a pointy response from the Foreign Ministry, which stated his feedback had been “notably disappointing, as they’re disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s combat in opposition to jihadist terrorism — a multi-front struggle that was compelled upon it beginning on October 7.”

The Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry says greater than 45,000 individuals within the Strip have been killed or are presumed lifeless within the combating up to now, although the toll can’t be verified and doesn’t differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and one other 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel has stated it seeks to attenuate civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas makes use of Gaza’s civilians as human shields, combating from civilian areas together with houses, hospitals, faculties, and mosques.

Israel’s toll within the floor offensive in opposition to Hamas in Gaza and in army operations alongside the border with the Strip stands at 388. The toll features a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry civilian contractor.