Hamas says it’s ready to free 34 captives under ceasefire deal, reports say aljazeera.com

Hamas has said it is ready to release 34 captives as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel, the Reuters and AFP news agencies have reported, citing an official with the Palestinian group.

The Palestinian group, which governs the Gaza Strip, has approved the release of the captives “as part of the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal”, the AFP reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed Hamas official.

The initial swap would include all women, children, elderly people and sick captives being held in Gaza, the AFP reported the official as saying.

But Hamas needed time to determine their condition, he said. “Hamas has agreed to release the 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead. However, the group needs a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead,” the official said.

Reuters cited an unnamed Hamas official as saying a ceasefire deal would depend on Israel agreeing to a permanent ceasefire and its withdrawal from Gaza.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that Hamas had yet to provide a list of captives for potential release.

The reports come as negotiations to reach a ceasefire agreement are under way in Qatar.

The administration of United States President Joe Biden, which is mediating the talks, is hoping for a last-minute breakthrough in the talks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that Washington wanted to see a ceasefire deal in Gaza concluded before the end of the Biden administration, but it may take longer.

“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” Blinken told a press conference in South Korea, where he is on a visit. “If we don’t get it across the finish line in the next two weeks, I’m confident that it will get its completion at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later.”