Hamas and Israel have agreed on a prisoners exchange deal as Israel continued to strike the besieged Gaza Strip, Al-Arabiya quoted sources as saying on Friday.
The sources confirmed the agreement between the two agreed on releasing Palestinian female prisoners and children held by Israel in exchange for 100 prisoners held by Hamas, it added.
Palestinian officials reported more than 10,000 dead, as Israel has faced growing calls for restraint in its month-old war on Hamas, whose October 7 attack made all Israelis fear for their lives.
According to the report, Qatar played a major mediating role which continued for weeks.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier rejected a ceasefire unless Hamas-held hostages were released.
“I want to deny any kind of rumors that reach us from all sides, to clearly repeat one thing: There will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages. Everything else is useless,” he said.
Meanwhile, around 50 people were killed Friday in strikes that hit a Gaza City school, said the director of Al-Shifa hospital where the casualties had been taken.
“About 50 martyrs were recovered from inside Al-Buraq school… in the Al-Nasr neighbourhood in Gaza after missile and artillery strikes that targeted the school this morning,” hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said.
AFP was unable to immediately verify the reported death toll.
Read: Iron dome malfunction: Israeli missile falls back on Israeli hospital
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler on Friday denounced the conduct of Israeli forces fighting Hamas in Gaza, ahead of weekend summits that will focus on the unfolding violence in the Palestinian territory.
“We condemn the military aggression witnessed in the Gaza Strip, the targeting of civilians, and the continued violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupation forces,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told a summit with African leaders, his first public comments on the Israel-Hamas war.
“We stress the necessity of stopping this war and forced displacement and creating conditions for the return of stability and achieving peace.”
On October 7, Hamas gunmen stormed across the heavily militarised border from the Gaza Strip to kill more than 1,400 people in southern Israel and take around 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel retaliated with an aerial bombing and ground offensive that the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says has killed more than 11,000 people, nearly half of them children.
The war has derailed progress towards a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which Prince Mohammed said in September was drawing “closer” every day.
With input from wires…
