Camille Naredo

Palestinian militant group Hamas fighters secure an area before handing over two Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Khan Yunis on February 1, 2025, as part of fourth hostage-prisoner exchange. Eyad Baba, AFP/File

Palestinian militant group Hamas fighters secure an area before handing over two Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Khan Yunis on February 1, 2025, as part of fourth hostage-prisoner exchange. The Israeli military said the two freed hostages had now crossed into Israeli territory after they were released by Hamas on February 1. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Article (news)

GAZA

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1746993265994AFP__20250201__36WQ77V__v2__Preview__TopshotPalestinianIsraelConflictHostage.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Palestinian militant group Hamas fighters secure an area before handing over two Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Khan Yunis on February 1, 2025, as part of fourth hostage-prisoner exchange. Eyad Baba, AFP/File"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Palestinian militant group Hamas fighters secure an area before handing over two Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Khan Yunis on February 1, 2025, as part of fourth hostage-prisoner exchange. <em>Eyad Baba, AFP/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories -- Hamas said it would release a US-Israeli hostage held in Gaza as the group revealed it was engaged in direct talks with the United States towards a ceasefire in the war-battered territory.</p><p>&quot;Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, a dual US national, will be released as part of efforts towards a ceasefire&quot; and the reopening of aid crossings, the Palestinian militant group said in a statement.</p><p>It was not immediately clear when 21-year-old Alexander would be released.</p><p>Earlier, two Hamas officials told AFP that talks were ongoing in the Qatari capital of Doha with the United States and reported &quot;progress&quot; had been made.</p><p>Israeli strikes meanwhile continued, with Gaza&#x27;s civil defense agency reporting that at least 12 people were killed on Sunday including four young children.</p><p>One Hamas official, speaking of the talks with the United States, said there was &quot;progress made... notably on the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip&quot; and the potential exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.</p><p>A second official also reported progress &quot;on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip&quot;.</p><p>Gaza militants hold 58 hostages seized during Hamas&#x27;s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.</p><p>Israel ended the last ceasefire, which lasted two months, on March 18, launching a major offensive in Gaza and ramping up its bombardment of the territory.</p><p>It has also cut off all aid to Gaza, saying it would pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/5/7/hamas-insists-on-comprehensive-deal-to-end-gaza-war-2201">READ: Hamas insists on &#x27;comprehensive&#x27; deal to end Gaza war</a></div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/5/5/israel-cabinet-approves-plan-for-gaza-conquest-2108">READ: Israel cabinet approves plan for Gaza &#x27;conquest&#x27;</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Post-war administration -</strong></div><p>Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, have taken place from the early months of the war without bringing it to an end.</p><p>Washington had for decades refused publicly to engage directly with Hamas, which it labels a terrorist organisation, before first doing so in March.</p><p>Hamas has continued to insist on a deal that ends the war and on April 18 rejected an Israeli proposal for a 45-day truce and hostage-prisoner exchange.</p><p>In its statement on Sunday, the group said it was willing to &quot;immediately begin intensive negotiations&quot; that could lead to an agreement to end the war and would see Gaza under a technocratic and independent administration.</p><p>&quot;This will ensure calm and stability for many years, along with reconstruction and the end of the blockade&quot;.</p><p>There was no immediate comment from either the United States or Israel.</p><p>Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved plans to expand its offensive in the Gaza Strip, with officials talking of retaining a long-term presence there.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/5/4/israel-calls-up-tens-of-thousands-of-reservists-for-gaza-offensive-0819">READ: Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for Gaza offensive</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Aid plan -</strong></div><p>Despite the talks, the war in the devastated Palestinian territory raged on.</p><p>Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFP that Israeli jets had hit three tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Khan Yunis.</p><p>AFP footage showed rescuers working in the dark, evacuating a wounded baby from the site of the strike as well as two bodies, one of them in a white plastic bag and another wrapped in a blanket.</p><p>A separate strike on Khan Yunis killed three people, Bassal said, while another was killed in Gaza City.</p><p>The Israeli military did not comment on any specific incidents but said its air force had struck &quot;more than 50 terror targets across the Gaza Strip&quot; since Saturday.</p><p>While ceasefire negotiations have yet to produce a breakthrough, Israel&#x27;s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, on Sunday &quot;fully&quot; endorsed a US plan to restore aid to Gaza, under a complete blockade since March 2.</p><p>Israel insists there is not a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip despite the warnings of aid groups and the United Nations, and says Hamas hijacks aid that enters the territory.</p><p>On Friday, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee outlined a plan in which a new foundation would lead the distribution of aid in Gaza, backed by Israeli military and private security.</p><p>The plan has drawn hefty international criticism for sidelining the United Nations and existing aid organisations, with the UN&#x27;s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, saying it was &quot;impossible&quot; to replace it in Gaza.</p><p>Hamas&#x27;s 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.</p><p>The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Sunday that at least 2,720 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,829.</p><div><strong>-- AFP team in Gaza with Pierre-Henry Deshayes in Jerusalem</strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IR3ntMN5djY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Hamas said it would release a US-Israeli hostage held in Gaza as the group revealed it was engaged in direct talks with the United States towards a ceasefire in the war-battered territory.</p>

Hamas said it would release a US-Israeli hostage held in Gaza as the group revealed it was engaged in direct talks with the United States towards a ceasefire in the war-battered territory.

Hamas to release hostage as part of direct Gaza talks with US

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Hamas to release hostage as part of direct Gaza talks with US

Agence France-Presse

Published May 12, 2025 04:28 AM PHT

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