Hamas and Israel open to weeklong truce to free 40 hostages

Hamas and Israeli officials appear open to discussing a weeklong truce that could free as many as 40 hostages — including women, the elderly and those who are sick.

All three major Israeli TV networks presented the Jewish state’s negotiating goals on Tuesday, revealing that their government wants to see Hamas free specific hostages, including women, seniors, and those with physical or mental illnesses.

In exchange for the hostages, Israel is allegedly prepared to engage in a weeklong cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners in its jails, the Times of Israel reports.

The deal would also seek to expand the humanitarian zones in the Palestinian enclave, as well as the amount of aid being delivered to Gaza.

It is similar to the deal that saw a week of peace between the warring armies in late November, which ultimately fell apart after Hamas and Israel could not come to an agreement on an eighth wave of hostage exchanges.

President Biden told reporters Wednesday that the US is pushing for Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that could see more of the estimated 128 hostages freed.

“We’re pushing it. There’s no expectation at this point, but we are pushing,” Biden said as he described reports of the Palestinian death toll likely surpassing 20,000 later today as “tragic.”

The reports of the Jewish state’s openness to the deal came as Israeli President Isaac Herzog claimed his nation was prepared for a second pause in fighting — as long as Hamas adheres to the agreed-upon rules — during a meeting with ambassadors from 80 countries on Tuesday.

A source close to Hamas has since confirmed an Axios report that the group is open to the deal, with its top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, traveling to Egypt on Wednesday.

Hamas said in a statement that Haniyeh would be discussing the war with Egyptian officials, but did not provide further details.

Egyptian and Qatari negotiators were the ones who brokered the first truce, and have since been attempting to restore peace in Gaza after intense fighting resumed on Dec. 1.

Despite the signs of another temporary truce on the horizon, high tension remains between the two sides, with Hamas signaling that a deal will not happen until Israel leaves Gaza, and the Jewish state reiterating that the fighting will not end until the terrorist group is destroyed.

“We are continuing the war to the end. It will continue until Hamas is eliminated — until victory,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Wednesday.

He has repeated the same message since Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel during the brutal Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

Along with Netanyahu’s comment, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera that his group will not hand over any hostage until it is given assurance that the war will end.

“Israel will take the card of the hostages and after that they will start a new round of mass killing and massacres against our people,” he said. “We will not play this game.”

The Jewish state believes that there are still 128 hostages in Gaza, not all of them alive, following the weeklong truce agreement that resulted in 105 captives being freed.