A senior Hamas official told Lebanese TV that they haven’t made any progress concerning the hostage talks.
Of course, he blames Israel:
A senior Hamas official tells Lebanese Al Mayadeen channel that “there is no real progress” in hostage talks.The official blames Israel’s “refusal to give clear answers regarding Hamas demands.”Those demands – nonstarters for Israel – are a full ceasefire, the withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza, and allowing displaced Gazans to return home before the terrorist organization gives any information on the hostages it holds.
But then Egypt claimed progress with the talks even though Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has supposedly gone silent:
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been mediating in talks for a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal in the almost five-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, which began with a shock assault launched by the Gaza terror group in southern Israel on October 7.An unnamed senior Egyptian official told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News on Monday morning that “Egypt continues its intense efforts to reach a truce before Ramadan,” the holy Muslim month beginning on March 10 or 11.“There has been significant progress in the negotiations,” the report said after the latest talks began Sunday.
Israel has not sent a team since it rejected last week’s latest plan. It doesn’t help that no one has heard from Sinwar in over a week.
Without Sinwar, any deal cannot be implemented:
The last message sent to Hamas political leadership in Qatar from Sinwar said there should be no rush to secure a hostage deal, said people familiar with the discussions. They said Sinwar was hoping that an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza town of Rafah over Ramadan would push Palestinians living in Israel and the West Bank to rise up against Israel.Israel now also believes that Sinwar may prefer tensions to increase over Ramadan rather than achieve a pause in the fighting, according to the Israeli official.
Hamas wouldn’t release a list of hostages still alive. It turns out the terrorists have no idea:
Basim Naim, a member of Hamas’s politburo, explained to the BBC from Istanbul that Hamas has refrained from submitting a list of hostages to Israel due to the complexities of the situation.”Technically and practically, it is now impossible to know exactly who is still alive and who has been killed,” Naim stated, citing the impact of Israeli bombardments and the blockade on Gaza.
Naim claimed it’s because the terrorists have split up the hostages around Gaza.
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