Hamas rejects further release of hostages until Israel agrees to end war

GAZA — Hamas says that Palestinian groups have rejected the prospect of further hostage releases until Israel agrees to end the war in Gaza.

In an Arabic statement shared on Telegram, Hamas said: “There is a Palestinian national decision that there should be no talk about prisoners or exchange deals except after a comprehensive cessation of aggression.”

It is unclear which other Palestinian factions the statement refers to. Islamic Jihad, a smaller group in the Gaza Strip, is also holding Israeli hostages.

Negotiations on bringing about a new truce in the war are currently taking place in Cairo, Egypt, though initial talks on Wednesday bore no fruit, with Hamas reportedly saying it would not agree to another temporary pause in fighting.

Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is believed to be based in Qatar, arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian officials.

During a six-day ceasefire at the end of November, 105 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for Palestinians held in jails. About 120 Israeli hostages are believed to still be in captivity.

Israel has repeatedly rejected a permanent ceasefire with Hamas, with national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir saying in a post on X that stopping the Israeli forces before Hamas is defeated and all the hostages are returned would constitute a “failure”.

Negotiations are continuing to try to secure a unanimous UN Security Council vote on a ceasefire in Gaza — due later Thursday in New York.

Two issues are important for Washington: The reference to a cessation of hostilities in the wording of the resolution and putting the UN in charge of inspecting trucks to ensure they are carrying humanitarian goods.

A vote on the Arab-sponsored resolution, first postponed on Monday, was pushed back again until Thursday morning as council members continued intense negotiations to avoid another veto by the US..

“The Security Council has agreed to continue negotiations today to allow for additional time for diplomacy,” the UN Security Council president told reporters on Wednesday.

But a former senior British diplomat has said it will be difficult for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to suspend hostilities with Hamas.

“He wants to completely eliminate Hamas as a military threat, as a political organisation, Mark Lyall Grant, who was the UK’s ambassador to the UN from 2009 to 2015, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“He wants to get all the hostages released and he wants to kill the Hamas leadership in Gaza.”

Lyall Grant believes Netanyahu will be reluctant to a agree to a new truce “until he’s achieved more of those objectives”.

He points out that all UN Security Council’s resolutions are legally binding, but not legally enforceable: “It’s possible that Netanyahu could ignore it, even if America had voted in favour of the resolution.”

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel declared war on Hamas. The UN estimates thousands more bodies lie buried under the rubble.

Around 300 Palestinians have died each day since the conflict began, excluding the seven-day ceasefire, says Gaza’s Health Ministry. — Agencies