Israel may agree with release of less than 40 hostages in first phase of truce: Reports
A Palestinian girl walks past the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza.
Israel is willing to decrease its original demand for the release of 40 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, media reports said.
Israel is now reportedly ready to negotiate for the release of 20 hostages after an offer proposed by Qatari, Egyptian and US negotiatorswas refusedby the terror group, which may have released many abductees if finalised.
Itwas reportedby many Hebrew media sites on Thursday evening (April 25) that Israel is now willing to finalise a deal to release only 20 hostages in the first phase of the truce, as long as they are either women ormen who are seriously ill and over 50 years old.
The release of 40 hostages in those categories was envisionedin the last proposal sent to Hamas, however, the terror outfit denied keeping so manyhostagesalive in those categories.
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Because of the ongoing deadlock, Israel's war cabinet authorised the negotiating team on Thursday (April 25) to discuss a flexible approach to the truce with an Egyptian delegation.
The Egyptian delegation will reach Tel Aviv for additional talks on the matter on Friday (Apr26), said the Hebrew news sites.
The Israeli negotiators in the earlier round insisted that 40 living hostages were falling under the category of female, elderly or sick and if Hamas said that this wasn’t true, then itshould agree to release hostages from categories, which are men and soldiers under the age of 50, to meet the benchmark of 40.
War cabinet discusses Rafah offensive amid truce talks
Israel's war cabinet held a meeting at military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Thursday (April 25) as the country prepared for the Rafah offensive.
Watch:Gravitas | Israel's Rafah Offensive: Here's what is very mysterious
Amid ongoing preparations for the Rafah offensive, Israel DefenseForces withdrew the Nahal Brigade from the GazaStripwith the aim of trainingthe rest of the 162nd Division for future operations.
Two reserve brigades - the 679th“Yiftah”Armored Brigade and the 2nd“Carmeli”Infantry Brigade - have replaced Nahal in central Gaza. During the cabinet meeting, the families of the hostages protested outside the compound asking for a deal for their release.
Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments on the Israel-Palestine conflict after the Hamas attacks. However, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
(With inputs from agencies)