Hamas officials: It is not possible to release all hostages in a single day under American proposal

By Nurit Yohanan

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

8 September 2025, 6:42 pm

6 Edit

Nurit Yohanan is The Times of Israel's Palestinian and Arab world correspondent

International Red Cross (ICRC) vehicles arrive at the scene shortly before Hamas fighters release of three Israeli hostages as part of the seventh hostage-prisoner swap, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 22, 2025. (Eyad Baba/AFP)

Sources in Hamas tell the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that Hamas informed the mediators it would not be possible to release all the hostages, both living and dead, on the first day of the ceasefire, as demanded by the new American proposal for a ceasefire deal.

The sources explain to the newspaper that “there are hostages who were killed in places where the IDF would need to cease fire (apparently for an extended period) in order to recover them from under the rubble, or who were buried in areas the IDF later entered” (and now controls).