Negotiations for a Gaza truce are overshadowed by news of the death of an Israeli hostage family.

 Negotiations for a Gaza truce are overshadowed by news of the death of an Israeli hostage family.

Written by Mohammed Salem, Maayan Lubell, and Nidal Al-Mughrabi

GMT+7 November 29, 20239:46 PM23 minutes ago

November 29, 2014 (Reuters) - An unfounded claim by Hamas that a 10-month-old Israeli captive and his family had died cast a shadow over last-minute talks between Israel and Hamas to prolong the Gaza truce on Wednesday.

The armed branch of Hamas announced just before the truce's last release of women and children that the youngest hostage, infant Kfir Bibas, together with his mother and four-year-old brother Ariel, had perished in an earlier Israeli bombardment. Their father has been detained as well.

The family was among the most well-known civilian hostages to be released, so Israel said it was investigating the potentially explosive accusation.

The Hamas statement could not be independently verified by Reuters. After the parents and kids were left out of the penultimate group of people released on Tuesday, family members filed a special plea to be released with the family.

The names of the Israeli prisoners whose release is scheduled for later on Wednesday were already disclosed to their families; if the truce is extended, these hostages will be the last to be liberated under it. At the time, officials remained silent on whether the Bibas family was included in that.

A0 list of the fifteen women and fifteen teenagers who would be freed from Israeli prisons in exchange for the hostages—240 individuals taken prisoner by Hamas fighters during their lethal invasion on Israel on October 7—was provided by Gaza's ruling Hamas party.

The list of Palestinians to be released included Israeli citizens as well as inhabitants of occupied territory for the first time since the truce's inception.

No deal has yet been achieved, a Palestinian official told Reuters earlier, despite a readiness on both sides to extend the truce. According to the spokesman, talks with Qatar and Egypt, the mediators, were still ongoing.

Eylon Levy, a spokesman for the Israeli government, stated that Israel would examine any significant proposal but he would not elaborate.

"Everything we can to free those hostages is being done. In Tel Aviv, Levy told reporters, "Until something is confirmed, it cannot be confirmed." "We're talking about very sensitive negotiations in which human lives hang in the balance."

He declared, "This war will end with the end of Hamas." The fighting will restart after the captives are released.

Source Aljazeera