Lee, Backlash After Mistaken Shooting of Own Hostage... "Discussion on Resuming Ceasefire"

As pressure mounts to resume ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas following the accidental killing of Israeli civilian hostages by the Israeli military, discussions on restarting the ceasefire are entering a new phase.

On the 17th (local time), major foreign media outlets, citing multiple Egyptian security sources, reported that both Israel and Hamas are open to the possibility of resuming negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release, but there are disagreements over the methods of ceasefire and hostage release.

[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

Hamas wants to unilaterally determine and announce the list of hostages to be released and expects the Israeli military to withdraw behind a predetermined boundary line. Israel agrees to Hamas’s unilateral selection of release candidates but wants to preview a detailed schedule and the list of hostages to be released in advance to set the ceasefire period.

On October 7, Hamas militants infiltrated southern Israel, carried out massacres, and took about 240 civilians and soldiers hostage. Among them, 105 were released during a week-long temporary ceasefire starting on the 24th of last month, and 8 returned as deceased.

It is known that about 129 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli military has confirmed that about 20 of them have died.

Earlier this month, the Israeli military declared the failure of an additional ceasefire extension with Hamas and resumed ground operations in the Gaza Strip. However, after mistakenly killing three hostages who had escaped Hamas’s control on the 15th, they halted the fighting and faced pressure to return to negotiations.

Meanwhile, local media reported that David Barnea, head of Mossad, acting under the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recently met with Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, the Prime Minister of Qatar who has been mediating in Oslo, Norway.

Israeli media reported that Director Barnea, accompanied by a reserve officer in charge of intelligence handling the hostage issue, plans to visit Europe again within days to meet Prime Minister Al-Thani.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.