Israel has sent a delegation to negotiate a hostage release deal with Hamas, a government official said today, according to Reuters.
Since then, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced mounting pressure to secure the release of the remaining 136 hostages. Hamas has said it will release the hostages as part of a ceasefire deal, however Netanyahu has refused to agree to such terms moving ahead with his genocidal war on Gaza.
Under a deal brokered in late November by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, more than 100 of the estimated 240 prisoners of war taken to Gaza on 7 October were freed in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
