Hamas willing to release 'civilian hostages' but needs 'calm environment', says official

An official of Hamas group conditioned the release of hostages in Gaza to a ceasefire in Israel's bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, launched after a deadly rampage into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.

Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the US and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

Two US fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in retaliation for attacks on US forces by Iranian-backed militias since the Gaza war erupted.

An opinion poll on Friday suggested almost half of Israelis now wanted to hold off on a ground invasion out of fears for at least 224 hostages reported to be held there.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted a member of a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying time was needed to locate all those abducted by various Palestinian factions in the Hamas attack on October 7.

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"They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them," Abu Hamid said.

He said Hamas, which has freed four hostages so far, had made clear it intended to release "civilian prisoners".

But this required a "calm environment", he said, repeating an assertion that Israeli bombing had killed 50 of those held.

Hamas officials in Moscow said they viewed all their hostages as Israelis, whatever additional passports they held, and could not release any of them until Israel agreed to a ceasefire, according to Russian media.

Qatar meanwhile told the US it was open to reconsidering the continued presence of Hamas in Qatar once a hostage release deal has been secured, a senior US official said.

There was no immediate response from Qatar, which, in coordination with the US, is leading hostage mediation talks with Hamas and Israel.

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas in the Gaza Strip, the latest of several small-scale incursions, Hamas-affiliated media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the reports.

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Residents of central Gaza said they had heard an apparent exchange of fire as well as heavy shelling and air strikes along the border, with Israeli planes dropping flares and bombs.

Hamas's Al Qassam Brigades said Israeli forces had attempted to land on a beach at the southern end of the Strip.

Israel said its fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives who played significant roles in the October 7 attack, though there was no confirmation by Hamas.

In early afternoon, rocket sirens sounded throughout southern Israel and an Israeli medic said three people had been wounded when a missile hit Tel Aviv.

In the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, an air strike killed the pregnant wife of a Palestinian lawyer, Jehad Al Kafarnah.

"My life, my heart, I love you," Kafarnah wrote, weeping, on the white sheeting wrapped around his wife's body. He held the body of her 8-month-old stillborn child, also wrapped in white, in his arms.