Hamas leader claims Israel is ‘manipulating the lists of prisoners’
Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad says Israeli is “manipulating the lists of prisoners” just hours before the hostage and prisoner exchange is due to take place.
Hamas has “completed the necessary arrangements” to hand over the hostages but Israel “is stalling,” Hamad told Al Jazeera earlier today, before calling for “strict oversight” of Israel and “international pressure.”
“The coming hours will reveal the extent of the occupation’s commitment to the agreement,” he said about Israel. “And then we will determine our responses.”
How the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal came together
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Jonathan Allen, Dan De Luce, Monica Alba, Carol E. Lee, Peter Nicholas and Yamiche Alcindor
President Donald Trump’s personal touch — both as a heavy hand and a gentle guide — played a pivotal role at key moments in the development of a Middle East peace deal that promises to bring an end to Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, current and former officials in the United States and other nations told NBC News.
Trump announced on Wednesday that the “first phase” of the plan to end the conflict in Gaza had been agreed to, with a pause in fighting and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Trump called it “a great deal” in a brief interview with NBC News on Thursday morning. “Everybody is happy,” he said.
The deal accelerated over several crucial moments — Israel’s strike on Qatar, discussions on the sidelines of the recent United Nations General Assembly in New York City and Jared Kushner’s conversations with his father-in-law, these sources said.
Also helpful, though, was an old-fashioned deadline.