A senior Hamas official shared with the BBC a list of 34 hostages the Palestinian group said it was willing to release in the first phase of a cease-fire agreement with Israel.
It is unclear how many of those named survived.
They included 10 women and 11 elderly men aged between 50 and 85, as well as young children who Hamas previously said were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Many of the hostages Hamas said were sick were also included in the list.
Israeli airstrikes killed more than 100 people there over the weekend, according to a report from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office denied reports that Hamas had provided Israel with a list of hostages.
“The list of abductees released to the media was not delivered to Israel by Hamas, but was originally delivered to an intermediary in Israel as early as July 2024,” he said.
“To date, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment from Hamas regarding the status of the abductees on the list.”
Hamas’ decision to release the names of the hostages will be seen by some as an attempt to increase public pressure on the Israeli government.
Ceasefire talks resumed in Doha, Qatar, last weekend, but there appears to be no significant progress so far.
A Hamas official told Reuters that any agreement to repatriate Israeli hostages would depend on Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire or end to the war.
However, the official, who requested anonymity, said, “However, the occupation forces are still stubborn about reaching an agreement on the ceasefire and withdrawal issues and have not been able to make even a single step forward.”
earlier, Hamas released video of 19-year-old Israeli prisoner Riri al-Bagh. They urged the government to negotiate.
She was arrested along with six other female conscripts at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
That day, Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed at least 45,805 people in the Gaza Strip as of Saturday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The same source said Israeli airstrikes killed 88 people in Gaza on Saturday, and on Sunday Reuters, citing health sources, said Israel had killed a further 17 people in four attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s military said on Sunday it had killed dozens of Hamas militants in attacks on more than 100 “terrorist” sites across the Gaza Strip over the weekend.
