Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023, attack led to the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, while Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,503 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from both sides.
In recent days, US hostages envoy Adam Boehler held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas and said an agreement for releasing more captives was expected “in the coming weeks”.
But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio talked down the prospects of a breakthrough from those discussions.
“That was a one-off situation in which our special envoy for hostages, whose job it is to get people released, had an opportunity to talk directly to someone who has control over these people and was given permission and encouraged to do so,” Rubio told journalists late on Monday in Jeddah.
“It hasn’t borne fruit. But it … doesn’t mean he was wrong to try”.
Source: CNA
