Hamas hands hostage list to Egypt

(JNS) The Hamas terrorist group in Gaza has given Egyptian authorities a list of hostages it is holding as interlocuters continue to push for a ceasefire agreement, the Saudi-based Al-Arabiya channel reported on Tuesday.

The list included names of Israeli hostages who are ill and elderly and should be included in an exchange deal, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported. Hamas also provided a list of terrorists it wants Israel to release.

An Israeli delegation that arrived in Cairo after the Hamas delegation had left the Egyptian capital was then given a list of 30 hostages who would be released during an initial 60-day ceasefire, the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported.

The 30 Israeli captives meet the established humanitarian criteria, including adults over 50 years of age who suffer from serious medical conditions, Channel 13 reported, adding that the identities of the remaining hostages to be freed would be agreed on between the two parties during the two-month ceasefire period, on condition that Israel does not attack Hamas in Gaza and that the terrorist group does not attack Israeli forces positioned in the Strip.

The United States and Egypt are pressuring Jerusalem to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, the approximately 110-yard wide, 8.7-mile-long strip of land running the length of Gaza’s border with Sinai, Kan News reported.

Hamas has demanded that Israel withdraw from the corridor and hand over full control of the Rafah border crossing to Egypt to the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas has for years smuggled weapons and other materials from Sinai into Gaza via a vast network of tunnels, which the IDF has been locating and dismantling since taking control of the border area in May.

Jerusalem maintains that Israeli military control of the corridor is crucial to ensuring that Hamas does not resupply and reestablish itself in Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that any ceasefire agreement must include continued IDF deployment on the border.

Two polls conducted in July and September show that a majority of Israelis support maintaining control of the Philadelphi Corridor.

‘Zionist leaks’

Despite reports that a ceasefire agreement is imminent, Israeli officials said that it is too soon for optimism as both sides must display flexibility. An Egyptian source involved in the negotiations said that Israel continues to show reluctance for a deal due to “hawkish” factions within the government. Qatari officials also expressed caution to Kan News.

Hamas is also tempering expectations, with the terrorist group’s representative in Lebanon, Ahmad Abd al-Hadi, saying that no proposal was given to the delegation that visited Cairo recently, calling the reports Israeli propaganda, the Ramallah-based Wattan News Agency reported on Wednesday.

“There was no Zionist offer during the Hamas delegation’s visit to Cairo, nor were there any new ideas for us to consider,” Abd al-Hadi said. “Apart from the Zionist leaks, a narrative was promoted claiming a positive development. They think that the movement will submit to the enemy’s conditions.”

He rejected the idea of a partial ceasefire and reiterated the terrorist group’s stance that Israeli troops must fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip, a demand that Jerusalem has continued to reject.

Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Ronen Bar and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi led the delegation that visited Cairo on Tuesday morning, in which the list of 30 hostages was reportedly handed to them.

They held talks with Maj. Gen. Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, and top military officials.

A source familiar with details of the meeting told Kan News that the discussion centered on strengthening security ties between the two countries.

The six-hour discussion also addressed the potential hostage deal, the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, and wider Middle Eastern tensions resulting from the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Kan noted that the meeting had been planned weeks in advance and does not necessarily signal progress in the hostage deal negotiations.

‘Each family makes their own choices’

According to Israeli estimates, there are 100 captives still in custody, including 96 abducted during the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 251 people were taken to Gaza. One-hundred-fifty-five hostages have been rescued or returned and Hamas is believed to be holding 36 bodies—Israeli soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul kidnapped in 2014 and 34 taken on Oct. 7, 2023.

“If there was indeed a list of names exchanged and if what is being said about the talks is true, this is significant progress,” Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather Oded Lifshitz was kidnapped on Oct. 7., told JNS on Sunday.

Oded, now aged 84, was wounded by Hamas terrorists during his abduction and is expected to be included in the list of hostages to be freed.

“I don’t think there is something specific we can do to push things forward. Each family makes their own choices, I am personally now waiting to see the way it evolves,” Daniel Lifshitz continued.

“Every media update brings expectations, which is what is so hard. It also brings disappointment. It’s definitely moving to see movement, I am not emotionally blocked but I am trying to lower my expectations,” Lifshitz added.

The last time he received a sign of life from his grandfather was from hostages who were freed in the ceasefire in November 2023.

Lifshitz told JNS that the current truce with Lebanon could increase the likelihood of closing a hostage deal.

“Escalating [tensions] is always less positive for closing a deal. When [the war against Hezbollah in] Lebanon started, the U.S. and everyone else focused on that front and on making an agreement there which unfortunately was not connected to Gaza. I think the current ceasefire will be very helpful to get an agreement in Gaza as well,” Lifshitz said.

Yehuda Cohen, whose son IDF soldier Nimrod Cohen was kidnapped near Kibbutz Nirim on Oct. 7, said, “I know no more than everyone else, because the information we are getting is mostly from the media. I am very frustrated with our contact point in the army. They are telling us not to trust information from the media.

“A couple of days before the media reports, we heard that planes stopped flying over Gaza and that Hamas said it was gathering hostages in the Strip. I asked my point of contact in the army if anything was going on, and she said she’d check but that if something is going on, it’s confidential,” he continued.

“In all honesty, I don’t care about what’s being said or what’s being written in the media, I care for action and what I want to see is the same as last November, people coming out of Gaza,” Cohen said.