US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called in recent days for the release of the captives held in Gaza, but Sami al-Arian, a professor at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, says Hamas’s position on the issue remains unchanged – in that it’s prepared to release them in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and an end to the war.
They’ve said “they’ll release the captives in exchange for the thousands of Palestinian prisoners but more importantly, the war has to stop and Israel has to withdraw”, al-Arian told Al Jazeera.
He added that Hamas has on more than one occasion made concessions to allow negotiations to continue, including last week saying it would release half of the remaining captives if Trump could secure a 60-day truce in a letter directed to the US president.
Al-Arian cited a more recent proposal by Trump, which Hamas officials were mulling when they were attacked in Doha by Israel.
“Once Hamas or the resistance says yes, the response from them [Israel] is to withdraw from the negotiations or not respond,” al-Arian added.
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