Release of hostages needs ceasefire, Hamas official says
Gaza to a ceasefire in Israel's bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, launched after a deadly rampage into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.
Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the U.S. and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.
Two U.S.
fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militias since the Gaza war erupted.
An opinion poll on Friday suggested almost half of Israelis now wanted to hold off on a ground invasion out of fears for at least 224 hostages reported to be held there.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted a member of a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying time was needed to locate all those abducted by various Palestinian factions in the Hamas attack on Oct.
7.
«They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them,» Abu Hamid said.
He said Hamas, which has freed four hostages so far, had made clear it intended to release «civilian prisoners».
But this required a «calm environment», he said, repeating an assertion that Israeli bombing had killed 50 of those held.
Hamas officials in Moscow said they viewed all their hostages as Israelis, whatever additional passports they held, and could not release any of them until Israel agreed to a ceasefire, according to Russian media.
Qatar meanwhile told the U.S. it was open to reconsidering the continued presence of Hamas in Qatar once a hostage release deal has been secured, a senior U.S.
