Hamas is evaluating the proposals at the negotiating table “with full seriousness and responsibility”, but reiterates its demand that any deal include an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war, conditions that Israel has previously rejected. Taher Nunu, a Hamas official and advisor to the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, says this, according to Israeli media reports and while meetings are underway in Cairo with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
«Any agreement to be reached must include our demands: a complete and permanent end to the aggression, the total withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip, the return of displaced people to their homes without restrictions and a genuine prisoner exchange, as well to reconstruction and the end of the blockade,” the Hamas official said.
Tonight new demonstration in Tel Aviv for the release of hostages
The families of the Israeli hostages in Gaza will demonstrate this evening in Tel Aviv to ask the government to reach an agreement for their release. The families themselves announced it by comparing the difficult situation of the kidnapped with that of the survivors of the Shoah which will be celebrated throughout Israel from tonight until tomorrow evening. The banner chosen for the protest reads 'It's time never again. «In the aftermath of October 7, the phrase “Never again” – added the organizers – took on an additional, relevant and urgent meaning.”