Hamas has expressed willingness to immediately release all hostages held captive by the organisation, however, the Palestinian terrorist group also asked Israel to cease bombing in the Gaza Strip to provide a safe passage to the hostages, according to NBC News.
The terrorist organisation also informed that the custody of the people held captive, is spread across a number of organisations and efforts are on to bring all of them together but the continuous bombing by the Israeli forces is becoming a major roadblock in the exercise.
Hamas ready to release hostages if Israel halts airstrikes: Reports
While some hostages are held captive by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another group based in Gaza, according to the news report, others are held by “random Gaza citizen opportunists,” a former U.S. official said as quoted by NBC news. As intense negotiations continue involving U.S., Israeli and Qatari officials, Hamas said it doesn’t have the custody of all the hostages seized in the attack on October 7, according to the report.
The sources spoke after a senior Hamas official told the media outlet that the group is ready to release all civilian hostages immediately, foreign and Israeli, if Israel puts an end to its airstrikes on Gaza. The Hamas official further claimed that there is no safe place to release the hostages now.
US President Joe Biden ahead of his visit to Israel today (October 18), in a media interview speaking on the issue of the hostage situation in the Gaza Strip expressed determination, stating, “I say we’re going to do everything in our power to find them. Everything in our power. And I’m not going to go into the detail of that, but there’s – we’re working like hell on it.”
The death toll in Israel has surged to over 1400, according to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). Moreover, over some 200 people have been held hostage in Gaza by Hamas terrorists.