😉 Hey amigos! Fresh update on the Israel-Gaza front:
Israel is weighing a 60-day truce in Gaza – but there's a big condition: the release of every hostage. A senior Israeli official told AFP that the government won't budge on this demand, insisting that no deal moves forward without all hostages freed.
📊 Here's the situation: 50 hostages remain in Gaza, and Israel believes about 20 are still alive. Hamas has floated a proposal to swap 200 Palestinian prisoners (plus an unspecified number of women and minors) for 10 living and 18 deceased hostages – details confirmed by two Egyptian security sources to Reuters.
🤝 This isn't new territory. Over the last two years, Israel and Hamas have held intermittent, indirect negotiations. They briefly paused the fighting twice, securing some hostage releases, but neither truce lasted.
🗣️ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn't publicly commented on this new plan, though last week he said Israel would accept "an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war."
🌟 Mediators, including Qatar, are now awaiting Israel's official response. Qatar describes the fresh proposal as "almost identical" to an earlier version, fueling cautious optimism that a longer ceasefire could finally stick.
🔮 What's next? Stay tuned: If both sides sign on, a 60-day pause might kick in – and if every hostage returns home, it could be the breakthrough everyone's hoping for.
Reference(s):
Israel considers 60-day Gaza truce and insists on hostage release
cgtn.com
