Hamas Says It Will Release a US-Israeli Hostage and 4 Bodies, but Israel Expresses Immediate Doubt

 A Palestinian walks past a rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
A Palestinian walks past a rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Hamas Says It Will Release a US-Israeli Hostage and 4 Bodies, but Israel Expresses Immediate Doubt

 A Palestinian walks past a rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
A Palestinian walks past a rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Palestinian group Hamas said Friday that it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual nationals who had died in captivity. The Israeli prime minister's office cast doubt on the offer, accusing Hamas of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

Hamas, which rules over what remains of the Gaza Strip, didn't immediately specify when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and the four bodies would take place — or what it expected to get in return.

Alexander was 19 when he was abducted from his base on the border with Gaza in southern Israel during Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked the war, which has been the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas.

It wasn't clear which mediators had proposed the release to Hamas. The United States, led by Trump administration hostage envoy Steve Witkoff, has been pushing for a proposal that would extend the truce and see some hostage-for-prisoner exchanges.

Following the Hamas statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that Israel had “accepted the Witkoff outline and showed flexibility,” but that “Hamas is refusing and will not budge from its positions.”

“At the same time, it continues to use manipulation and psychological warfare — the reports about Hamas’ willingness to release American hostages are intended to sabotage the negotiations,” read a letter from the government to hostage families.

It added that Israel’s negotiating team would return Friday from Qatar's capital, Doha. Netanyahu said that he plans to convene his ministerial team on Saturday night to hear from the negotiators and decide on the next steps.

Hamas, meanwhile, sent a delegation to Cairo to discuss the ceasefire negotiations with Egyptian officials. Egypt, Qatar and the US all have been acting as mediators.

Ceasefire is at a tense point

The first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago, but the pause in fighting has held — if tensely — for now.

The White House made a surprise announcement last week, saying that American officials had engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas, stepping away from a long-held US policy of not directly engaging with the group. That prompted a terse response from Netanyahu’s office.

It wasn't immediately clear whether those talks were linked to Hamas’ announcement on Friday about releasing Alexander and the remains of the four additional captives, whose names weren't disclosed.

In a separate statement, Hamas official Husam Badran reaffirmed what he said was the group's commitment to fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in all its phases. He warned that any Israeli deviation from the terms would return negotiations to square one.

The first phase of the ceasefire allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza and hundreds of trucks of aid entered daily until Israel cut off supplies to the territory's 2 million people two weeks ago.

Hamas is believed to be holding 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.

A group that represents the families of most captives said Friday that it welcomed plans to release any of the hostages, but that the focus must remain on returning all of them.

“Without a comprehensive deal, we risk sealing the fate of all remaining hostages,” the Hostage Families Forum said in a statement.

Israel has been urging Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for an extension of the first phase, and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. The supply cutoff came as Israel pressed the group to agree. About 80% of Gaza's residents have lost access to food sources, and 90% can't access clean drinking water, according to the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza.

Hamas wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would entail the release of the remaining hostages, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace.

Muslims pray during restrictions at Al-Aqsa Mosque

The developments came as Jews began celebrating the Purim holiday, and Muslims continued marking the holy month of Ramadan. Around 80,000 Muslim worshippers prayed Friday at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to the Islamic Trust, which monitors the site.

Israel is tightly controlling access to the prayers, allowing only men over age 55 and women over 50 to enter from the occupied territory.

“The conditions are extremely difficult,” said Yousef Badreen, a Palestinian who left the southern West Bank city of Hebron at dawn to make it to Jerusalem. “We wish they will open it for good.”

Hamas accused Israel of escalating a “religious war” against Palestinians, casting the Al-Aqsa restrictions as “systematic targeting of Muslim religious practices." The Israeli government didn't immediately respond to the accusations.



Israel Exploiting Hezbollah’s Weakened Position in Lebanon to Assassinate its Members

A firefighter douses the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)
A firefighter douses the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)
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Israel Exploiting Hezbollah’s Weakened Position in Lebanon to Assassinate its Members

A firefighter douses the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)
A firefighter douses the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)

Israel is waging a law intensity war against Hezbollah in Lebanon by assassinating its suspected members and fighters taking advantage of the Iran-backed party’s inability to retaliate to the attacks to avoid the eruption of an all-out war again.

Israel has carried out assassinations against Hezbollah south and north of Litani since the ceasefire in the war took effect in November.

The party appears to be restricted by the conditions imposed by the ceasefire and its new weakened position in Lebanon, leaving the Lebanese state with the responsibility to handle Israeli violations.

In its latest attack on Hezbollah, Israel said on Saturday that it assassinated a member who “had taken part in terrorist activity” in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel is imposing through its attacks a buffer zone along the border with Lebanon that is largely empty of civilians given the extent of the damage incurred in the war.

Israel is expanding the area of its attacks slightly north of the border by targeting people suspected of being Hezbollah members or even supporters, they added.

Figures close to Hezbollah said Israel is taking advantage of the “green light” given to it by the international community to go ahead with its attacks in Syria, Gaza and southern Lebanon, where it is violating the ceasefire and United Nations Security Council resolution 1701.

It is also exploiting the political restrictions that are “tying Hezbollah’s hands” in Lebanon that do not allow the party to respond to the Israeli attacks.

The new conditions imposed by the war have forced Hezbollah to join political work and suspend military activities, while continuing to refuse to lay down its weapons.

The party is coming under Lebanese and international pressure to refrain from retaliating to the Israeli attacks that could prompt Tel Aviv to launch a wide-scale war against Lebanon again.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem had days earlier said the party is committed to the ceasefire and will not give Israel excuses to violate it.

Hezbollah’s opponents told Asharq Al-Awsat that the party is being restricted from acting given the new president and government in Lebanon.

Hezbollah does not want to become embroiled in a confrontation with them, they stressed, so it is “placing its cards with the state.”

Should the state fail in stopping the Israeli violations, and should diplomacy also fail, then it may resort to discussing a defense strategy that would include Hezbollah.

Another area that is restricting Hezbollah is the reconstruction of areas destroyed by Israel during the war.

Should Hezbollah violate the ceasefire, then the international community may consider holding back any financing of reconstruction, said the sources.

Moreover, the party is being restricted by its own Shiite popular base. A new war would risk their displacement yet again and jeopardize their support to Hezbollah, they added.