Tel Aviv-based journalist Haggai Matar described in an interview with NJ Spotlight News that the U.S., Israel and Hamas are inching closer to a deal that will release some of the 240 hostages captured by Hamas. Still, he said uncertainty still remains.
“It looks like something is developing towards a deal that would include a ceasefire in the release of somewhere between 50-80 hostages, probably some women and their children,” Matar told NJSN anchor Briana Vannozzi.
“But still the noise around this deal is very intense,” he said. “We have accusations coming from both sides that the other side is uninterested, and until we actually see people coming out, it’s very hard to be very sure of anything.”
Matar also described the struggles that journalists in Gaza are facing as they cover the war: “The most difficult thing is our concern for the people there [in Gaza]. We have had one previous contributor that wrote one piece for us in the past that was killed together with his entire family. Our current contributors, we’re calling every morning just to see that they’re alive.”
