Hamas continues to press mediators to secure the release of some Palestinian leaders detained in Israel, including Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat, whose release was not agreed upon in the ceasefire negotiations. A senior official of the Islamist faction, Mousa Abu Marzouk, told Al Jazeera. “The movement is insisting on their release and negotiations are still ongoing,” Marzouk said.
Hamas had previously issued a statement in which it ensured compliance with “phase one” of the peace plan, which provides for the return of the Israeli hostages to Gaza, dead and alive. Abdullah Barghouti, Hassan Salama, Ibrahim Hamed and Abbas al-Sayyed are among other notable prisoners whose release Hamas is calling for.
“We will not accept foreign rule in Gaza”
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have issued a note in which they state that they will not accept, within the framework of the peace plan, any “foreign rule” in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli media reported it.
“The government of Gaza is a Palestinian issue”, reads the declaration of the militias, who however welcomed the commitment to reconstruction shown by numerous countries. The Islamist movements underlined that an agreement has been reached so far “on the application of the first phase” of the plan and promised to continue working for the release of Palestinian prisoners who will not be released on the basis of the agreement with Tel Aviv.
The release of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged is underway. Hostages freed on Monday, “Hamas is rounding them up”
Israeli police have begun releasing Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for Israeli hostages held in Gaza, as required by the peace plan. Ynet reports it. Hundreds of agents are transferring almost two thousand people from five different prisons to facilities from which 250 life prisoners and 1,700 Gazans arrested after the October 7 attacks will be released.
The Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza “will return on Monday” and “Hamas is rounding them up at the moment.” The President of the United States, Donald Trump, told reporters in the Oval Office. “There are about 28 dead, some are being recovered as we speak,” added the US president, who in the next few days will visit Israel, where he will speak to the Knesset, and Egypt. «Everyone wants this agreement to happen. There is consensus on the next phases of the plan for Gaza,” Trump concluded.
Media, “19 Palestinians dead despite ceasefire”
The bodies of 155 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks have been transported to hospitals in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, including 135 whose bodies were recovered from under the rubble, medical sources reported after midnight. This was reported by the Palestinian agency Wafa. The sources said 19 Palestinians were killed in continued Israeli airstrikes across the Strip, despite the announced ceasefire agreement, while one person died from wounds sustained in an earlier attack. According to the same sources, 16 people were killed when Israeli warplanes bombed a house owned by the Ghabboun family in southern Gaza City. Two Palestinians were also killed in an airstrike south of Khan Younis, also in southern Gaza. Hospitals in the Strip received a large number of victims: 43 bodies were transported to Al-Shifa hospital, 60 to Al-Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza City, four to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, 16 to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ hospital in Deir al-Balah and 32 to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Since October 2023, over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with around 170,000 injured, mostly children and women, due to Israel’s two-year war on the Strip. The massive destruction, which targeted homes and infrastructure, also led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.