Israel in talks over release of Gaza hostages, Netanyahu tells families

Israel is working to return all the hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on December 28 adding that Qatar and Egypt have put forward two separate proposals to move the matter forward.

“We are holding contacts at this very moment,” he told relatives of the hostages at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv. “I cannot detail the status. We are working to return them all. This is our goal.”

Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch and National Security Council Director Tzachi Hanegbi were also present.

Netanyahu spoke with the relatives before a meeting of the war cabinet, the Jerusalem Post reports.

On Thursday, Egypt said it had put forward a framework proposal to end the war. It includes three stages, ending with a ceasefire, it said, adding that it was waiting for responses.

Egypt would give further details of the plan once those responses are received, Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt's State Information Service, said in a statement.

The proposal is an attempt “to bring viewpoints between all concerned parties closer, to stop Palestinian bloodshed and the aggression against the Gaza Strip, and restore peace and stability to the region,” he said.

A report about an initial Egyptian deal had spoken of a first phase that would allow for the release of some 40 hostages, including women, children, and elderly men.

Qatar has also put forward a proposal with a similar element that focuses on a partial deal, Channel 12 reported. US President Joe Biden spoke earlier this week with the Emir of Qatar to discuss the hostages.

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad want to link a hostage deal to end the war, which has displaced more than 1.9 million out of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. According to Hamas, more than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in war-related violence. Israel has said more than 8,000 of them were combatants.