DUBAI/CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas has accepted a U.S. proposal to begin talks on the release of Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of a deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza, a senior Hamas source said on Saturday.
The militant Islamist group has dropped its demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the deal. The source said negotiations to achieve that would take an initial six-week phase, he told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace effort said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if Israel embraced it, ending the nine-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza. The war broke out after Hamas attacked towns in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
The Hamas source said the proposal would see mediators guarantee a temporary ceasefire, aid deliveries and Israeli troop withdrawals as long as indirect talks take place to implement the second phase of the deal.
(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and William Mallard)
