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Israel reaches tentative hostage, ceasefire deal with Hamas
By Ronny Reyes
Israel and Hamas reached a tentative deal Tuesday to free hostages from Gaza, reports said.
More than a month after kidnapping about 240 people during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the Palestinian terror group Hamas reportedly agreed to release some of its captives.
In exchange, Israel had been expected to agree to a days-long pause in the war that has devastated the Palestinian enclave. Along with the cease-fire, Israel was reportedly set to release some of its prisoners.
US officials have said they were hoping that Abigail Mor Idan, a 3-year-old American girl whose parents were killed Oct. 7, would be among the children included in the negotiations.
Ahead of the hostage negotiations, Israeli soldiers transferred detained Palestinians on Tuesday out of the Gaza Strip. It is unclear if those transferred might be among the prisoners released in the hostage negotiations.
The reported deal was designed to create the first major pause in the war that has killed more than 1,200 people in the Jewish state and more than a reported 11,500 others in Gaza, an unprecedented loss of life in the decades of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
It would come as a relief to those sheltering in Gaza after Israel began an all-out bombardment and ground assault into the Palestinian enclave, shutting down hospitals and evacuating civilians to the south.
On Monday, injured Palestinians were evacuated from the struggling Indonesian hospital to the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The cease-fire deal was likely be coordinated with further evacuations out of north Gaza, which holds several of Hamas’ headquarters, along with more aid trucks to be received by hospitals.