The Office of the Prime Minister of Israel denied the information that Hamas handed over the list of hostages to Israel.
“The list of abductees published in the media was not given to Israel by Hamas, but was initially given from Israel by an intermediary back in July 2024,” the report said.
“To date, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment from Hamas regarding the status of the abductees on the list.”
Hamas’s decision to release the names of the hostages will be seen by some as an attempt to increase public pressure on the Israeli government.
Ceasefire talks resumed in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend, but the talks do not appear to have made much progress yet.
A Hamas official told Reuters that any agreement on the return of the Israeli hostages would depend on a deal for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire or an end to the war.
“However, until now, the occupation continues to stubbornly negotiate a ceasefire and withdrawal and has not taken a single step forward,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
before, Hamas released a video of 19-year-old Israeli prisoner Lira Albagh urging her government to strike a deal.
She was captured along with six other female conscripts at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
That day, Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has killed at least 45,805 people in Gaza as of Saturday, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
The same source said Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed 88 people on Saturday, and on Sunday Reuters, citing health sources, said another 17 were killed in four separate Israeli attacks on the territory.
Israel’s military said Sunday that its air force struck more than 100 “terrorist” targets across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants.
