Gaza: No One Has Idea How Many Israeli Hostages Still Alive – Hamas Official

A senior Hamas official has said that “no one has an idea” how many of the remaining 120 hostages in Gaza are still alive.

Hamas spokesperson and political bureau member, Osama Hamdan, told CNN that any deal to release them must include guarantees of a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The fate of the 120 remaining hostages in Gaza is crucial to any deal to end the protracted and bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas.

In an interview with CNN, Hamdan said the latest proposal on the table – an Israeli plan that was first publicly announced by US President Joe Biden late last month – did not meet the group’s demands for an end to the war.

He said that Hamas needed “a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, and let the Palestinians to determine their future by themselves, the reconstruction, the (lifting) of the siege … and we are ready to talk about a fair deal about the prisoners exchange.”

Negotiations over the US-backed proposal have intensified in recent days but appeared to grind to a halt on Wednesday after Hamas presented its response to the document.