Israeli officials told media outlets on Sunday that Jerusalem has agreed to release between 700 – 800 Palestinian detainees in exchange for 40 hostages held by the Hamas terrorist organization. Some of the proposed prisoners to be freed are serving life sentences for murder.
An approval from the terror group is expected in the next 24 – 48 hours, as time is needed to discuss the matter with Hamas’s Gaza-based leader Yahya Sinwar.
In addition to the large amnesty, local media outlets have reported that Israel is willing to allow displaced civilians to return to their homes in northern Gaza should the settlement be implemented.
The deal’s announcement comes a day after U.S. mediators published a “bridging proposal” to generate an exchange ratio for the two warring parties. The Biden administration has been aggressively trying to solve this issue to placate growing anti-Israel dissent among left-wing groups in the Democratic party. The U.S. president is up for re-election in November.
There has been no comment from the White House or the State Department regarding this matter.
There are currently more than 100 of Israel’s citizens who continue to be held captive, including 19 women and two children, as a result of the October 7 massacre conducted by Hamas.
On Friday, China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution that would have called for a ceasefire in the embattled coastal enclave. Both nations claimed that the proposal was not comprehensive enough.
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