Israel offers to pay millions of dollars for release of each hostage

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to offer Hamas hostage-takers in the Gaza Strip millions of dollars for the release of each hostage and a safe withdrawal with their families.

Israeli government sources confirmed the report, broadcast by Channel 12, to dpa.

But Hamas representative Taher al-Nono described the offer as a “farce” in a conversation with dpa and said hostages would only be released with an agreement that would end the war, lift the blockade on Gaza and allow for the reconstruction of the embattled coastal strip.

Of the approximately 250 people abducted from Israel during the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, some 100 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, although many are thought to have died.

Their relatives accuse Netanyahu of having blocked an agreement on their release while he in turn blames Hamas.

Some 1,200 people were killed by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks on southern Israeli communities last year. Israel responded by pounding Gaza with airstrikes and launching a ground offensive into the coastal territory, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and reducing most of Gaza to ruins.

Seven killed in West Bank

The death toll later rose to seven in the West Bank after an Israeli military operation, according to Palestinian reports.

The Health Ministry in Ramallah said two men were killed in a drone attack south of Jenin, two other Palestinians were killed near Tubas and three in the town of Qabatiya.

The Israeli military said a drone attacked “a cell of armed terrorists” south of Jenin and that two gunmen and later a third were killed.

There were also shoot-outs with gunmen near the Israeli settlements of Alfe Menashe and Shomron, the Israeli military said.

The already tense situation in the West Bank has deteriorated significantly since the start of the war in Gaza.