Hamas Open To 5-Yr Gaza Truce, One-Time Hostages Release

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official said yesterday as the Palestinian resistance movement's negotiators held talks with mediators.
A Hamas delegation was in Cairo discussing with Egyptian mediators ways out of the 18-month war, while, on the ground, rescuers said an Israeli strike on a family home in Gaza City killed at least 10 people.
Nearly eight weeks into an Israeli aid blockade, the UN says food and medical supplies are running out.
The Hamas official said the group“is ready for an exchange of prisoners in a single batch and a truce for five years”.
Hamas had sought talks on the second phase but Israel wanted the first phase extended.
Israel demands the return of all hostages seized in the 2023 attack, and Hamas's disarmament, which the group has rejected as a“red line”.
Israel pounded Gaza again yesterday, with rescuers reporting the deaths of 19 people.
In Gaza City, in the territory's north, the civil defence rescue agency said a strike on the Khour family home killed 10 people and left an estimated 20 more trapped in the debris.
Elsewhere across Gaza, nine more people were killed, rescuers said.
Qatar, the US and Egypt brokered the truce which began on January 19 and enabled a surge in aid, alongside exchanges of hostages and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

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