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Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Hamas has provided info on ‘roughly 20 living hostages,’ Israeli officials say
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
As an agreement on the hostage-release phase of the US plan for ending the war in Gaza appears close, Hamas has provided information on “roughly 20 living hostages,” Israeli officials tell Channel 12. The report adds that the terror group says it is still searching for some of the slain hostages — Israel has confirmed the deaths of 26 of the 48 hostages — and that it is not clear that all of them can be located.
Under the proposed deal, Israel is to begin releasing Palestinian security prisoners once the hostage-release phase is completed. The TV report says that the understanding currently appears to be that once Hamas hands over all of the living hostages and all the slain hostages it can locate, and makes clear it is not holding any as bargaining chips, then the prisoner releases will follow.
Israel will not free Hamas Nukhba terrorists who directly participated in the October 7 massacre, the report says. But there will be some “flexibility” on the issue of the release of some heavyweight terrorists serving life terms, many of whom Israel has refused to free in past deals. The TV report anticipates that negotiations on this extremely thorny issue will continue until the very end of the talks.
Under the emerging deal, there will be ‘cosmetic changes” to the lines of the interim IDF withdrawal as drawn on a map released by the White House last week, which showed the IDF deployed in some 57% of the Gaza Strip.
An Arab diplomat and a second source briefed on the negotiations has told The Times of Israel that mediators aim for the agreement to be signed on Thursday.
According to Channel 12, Israel’s government has already begun drafting the decision proposal that will be brought to a vote.
After Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi invited US President Donald Trump to come to Egypt for a potential signing ceremony, the TV report says Trump is considering doing so. The timing, if a ceremony is held on Friday, the report notes, would coincide with the announcement of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — an award Trump has long sought and claims he deserves. Channel 12 says it is not known whether Trump might also visit Israel.
The White House later tells Channel 12 reporter Barak Ravid, however, that Trump currently has no plans to travel to the Middle East to oversee the signing of a deal to end the war in Gaza.
Two senior White House officials quoted by Channel 12 are “very optimistic” that a deal is possible within days. It quotes other sources, which it specifies are not Israeli, saying Qatar is confident that there’ll be a deal by Friday, that Qatari ambassadors have started to brief their various host countries to this effect, and that hostage releases could begin at the start of next week.
The Times of Israel Community.