Gaza [Palestine], October 29: Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said on Saturday it is ready to hold talks with Israel on solving the hostage issue.
"If Israel wants to resolve the issue in one go, we are ready for that. If it wants to divide the process into several rounds, we are also ready," Abu Obaida, spokesperson of the brigades, said in a televised speech.
He also claimed that "contacts" had been made for trying to solve the hostages issue, but Israel did not show "real seriousness," adding that the only condition for releasing the hostages held by the group was for Israel to free all Palestinian prisoners.
In response to reports on a possible hostage release deal, Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, on Friday called the reports "psychological terror employed by Hamas." A total of 229 hostages are being held in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the IDF.
The brigades said Thursday that at least 50 hostages were killed by the Israeli bombardment. Four of them have been released by Hamas.
On Oct. 7, Al-Qassam Brigades launched a surprise attack on Israel by firing thousands of rockets on Israeli sites and infiltrating towns near the border with Gaza, killing at least 1,400 in Israel and taking many hostages to Gaza. Israel retaliated with massive airstrikes on Gaza, killing more than 7,700 people in the coastal enclave.
Source: Xinhua