Hamas has indicated it is currently unable to identify and track down 40 Israeli hostages needed for the first phase of a ceasefire deal, according to an Israeli official and a source familiar with the discussions, raising fears that more hostages may be dead than are publicly known.
The framework that has been laid out by negotiators says that during a first six-week pause in the fighting, Hamas should release 40 of the remaining hostages, including all the women as well as sick and elderly men. In exchange, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli prisons.
Hamas has told international mediators – which include Qatar and Egypt - it does not have 40 living hostages who match those criteria for release, both sources said.
CNN’s record of the conditions of the hostages also suggests there are fewer than 40 living hostages who meet the proposed criteria.
Hamas just hasn't been taking civilian noncombatants as hostages like Israel has been doing.
Most hostages are combatants, and that doesn't meet the details for this requirement
The majority of the almost 100 hostages who remain alive are believed to be male IDF soldiers or men of military reserve age.
With Hamas appearing to be unable to reach 40 in the proposed categories, Israel has pushed for Hamas to fill out the initial release with younger male hostages, including soldiers, the Israeli official said.
I was quoting the article, which contained important information. I would presume that the hostages want to return home, as do their loved ones. I don't think that the number of combatants released by Hamas would constitute a significant increase to Israel's fighting force, at least in the numbers mentioned in the article, and this seems like a bad excuse to disrupt hostage exchanges.
The other two newly released hostages were a brother and sister, Belal and Aisha al-Ziadna, aged 18 and 17 respectively, according to the Israeli prime minister's office. They are Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel and among four members of their family taken hostage while they were milking cows on a farm.
Wahid Alhuzail, who chairs a group for Bedouins kidnapped on Oct. 7, said he was happy they were freed. "But it's not completely fulfilling. We want everyone to come home and for nobody to be stuck in the hands of the terror organization Hamas," he told Reuters.
"We want these people to go home," Hamad said. "And, also, we want our prisoners now to go home. So I think we are ready now to have complete compromise, complete a deal, in order to receive all the hostages, either military or civilians."
The majority of the almost 100 hostages who remain alive are believed to be male IDF soldiers or men of military reserve age. Hamas is expected to try to use to them in later phases to try to negotiate more significant concessions, including more high-level prisoners and a permanent end to the war.
Yes, they understand the difference, but seemingly not in the same way you do, they seem to think releasing soldiers could help end the conflict.
Edit: also your reply doesn't address what I said.
Since 7 October, according to the Israeli authorities, four Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli detention facilities in circumstances that have not yet been impartially investigated. Two of the four are workers from the occupied Gaza Strip, held incommunicado by the Israeli army in military detention centres, whose deaths were only made public by the army after an inquiry by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
This similarly does not support your original assertion, from your original article:
“This ends in complications and sometimes even in the patient’s death,” the doctor wrote, Haaretz reported.
Is there a reason you choose to embellish (and directly substitute words in the article for your own personal opinion) instead of accurately convey what the article says?
This is flagrantly misrepresenting what this discussion is about as I've directly quoted. This is not conducive to informative discussion, and a disservice to this sub.
The Palestinian militants who raided Israel in the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 killed over 1,200 people, according to Israel, and abducted over 240 civilians and soldiers, bringing them back to the Gaza Strip.
I am not here to give Israel a W, but Hamas still has a number of civilian captives from the original October 7 attack. Just not as many surviving as was assumed.
According to Israel's own figures, there are 90 or so living hostages and 30 or so bodies still held by Hamas IIRC. Apparently most of the 90 survivors are non-civilians, based on what Hamas is saying, but some of them still are.
But the article OP linked even says there aren't 40 noncombatants left....
Right, I acknowledged that. It's just that no one knows who specifically is counted in the alive vs dead hostage statistics. It wouldn't surprise me if Israel purposefully set a number of civilians that they knew had likely already died, knowing that Hamas would not be able to comply with the request, to justify continuing the conflict.
I would say take it with a grain of salt, but there's enough international scrutiny that I would say the list of missing is probably reliable enough. People in Israel are still protesting the Israeli government about that very frequently. Not everyone missing from October 7th has been returned, alive or dead. Many probably buried beneath rubble from IDF attacks, to be honest, since several were already confirmed killed by "friendly" fire.
Edit: to add, it is worth noting that Hamas is not the only group that participated in Oct 7 and took hostages. There are likely other hostages that they cannot account for because they were taken by other groups.
Again, your own article says CNN knows there aren't 40 hostages left that aren't noncombatants.
Israel keeps taking civilians hostage, so they have enough.
Since 10/7 the only Israelis Hamas interacts with are combatants. They literally don't have enough hostages left for this deal, which is likely how the deal arrived at that number.
It's something that literally is impossible to comply with, and Israel gets to blame Hamas.
This ain't complicated bub. Your own source agrees with me.
You only addressed half the statement. They are not saying that Israel doesn't take civilian hostages. They are questioning the claim that Hamas doesn't take civilian hostages. Follow the thread please.
Sources? Do I even want your sources at this point....last time I asked for evidence you gave me a verbal statement by the prime minister and that was good enough in your book. You really don't need much convincing when the evidence aligns with your bias, do you?
Last time you got a source you denied reality and pretended that "no that doesn't count". I'm not sure why you are bringing this up it only makes you look bad.
The final death toll from the attack is now thought to be 695 Israeli civilians, including 36 children, as well as 373 security forces and 71 foreigners, giving a total of 1,139.
The temporal qualifier is inherent in the grammar of the statement. Perhaps you didn't notice it?
In English, the present perfect continuous has/hasn't been taking implies a frequent and repeated action since a fixed time in the past - in this case, presumably, the start of the current conflict until now.
Since Hamas only took civilian hostages on one occasion, i.e. October 7th, and not again since, it is not true to say that Hamas "has been taking hostages". They took hostages. Once.
Israel, on the other hand, have been taking Palestinian civilians captive, repeatedly, since October 7th. That's the difference.
You're inferring the start point for the perfect continuous and assigning Oct 7; I'm assigning the start point to be the overall conflict in a broader context. I'm being charitable. I might be wrong, but I can't read OPs mind so I'm being charitable.