Hamas hints hostage-prisoner swap, Gaza aid

Israel is to swap 300 Palestinian prisoners for up to 100 Israeli hostages of Hamas terrorists plus a ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Gaza under a tentative deal revealed by sources from the latter and another terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that the deal is close to being agreed by both sides.

Qatar has been mediating weeks of negotiations on the deal that excludes captive Israeli soldiers who were among 238 that the terrorists dragged to their underground hideouts in Gaza Strip on 7 October after firing over 10,000 rockets and missiles into Israel and launching a cross-border attack that murdered 1,219 mostly civilians in Israel and wounded 8,650 others, according to Israel's embassy in Manila.

Israel declared war on Hamas and launched a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza in retaliation for the attack, vowing to destroy the terrorists and secure the release of the hostages.

According to the Hamas government in Gaza, the war has killed more than 13,300 people in the Palestinian enclave, thousands of them children.

On Monday, families of Israeli children held hostage by Hamas in Gaza pleaded for international voices to demand their release at a protest outside the United Nations children's fund in Tel Aviv.

Several hundred demonstrators joined the protest on World Children's Day, more than six weeks after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel.

At least 36 of the hostages are children, including 10 babies less than 5 years old, with 18 of them over the age of 75, according to the embassy statement. One baby was born in captivity, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Demonstrators held Israeli flags, portraits of the children and stuffed toys, with a projector casting enormous pictures of their names, faces and ages onto the side of the building housing the offices of UNICEF, the UN children's agency, as participants chanted: "UN do your job!"

"How can it be that in the face of this horror, my 12-year-old boy Erez and Sa'ar, 16 and many other children are hostages — brutally taken hostage — and the world is silent?" Hadas Kalderon, whose two children have been held in Gaza by Palestinian militants since 7 October, said.

"Large institutions like UNICEF are silent. Have you forgotten your role?" she said.

"Where are the rights of my children?"

Yoni Asher, whose two daughters, four-year-old Raz and Aviv, 2, are among the hostages, called on UNICEF to make a public stand about Israeli children "like you refer specifically to babies on the other side."