00:00 In Israel, government sources have told Euronews that a deal to release hostages from Hamas
00:04 in Gaza is close. It's likely that 40 children and around 20 women and elderly people are
00:09 included in exchange for a ceasefire of three to five days and release of Palestinians,
00:15 including children, from Israeli jails. Meanwhile, families of the hostages continue to put pressure
00:20 on the government to get the deal done. Sharon Lifshitz's 85-year-old mother, Yochaved, was
00:25 released from Hamas captivity after three weeks, but her father, 83-year-old Oded, is
00:31 still taken hostage.
00:44 So many of our community are dead. So many are hostages. So many are deeply traumatized.
00:50 Our home is burned. Our community is dispersed across the country. My mom's house is in Gaza
00:57 with the other people there.
00:59 And how is she treated?
01:00 I think that how she's treated is like one little bit of a story in which there were
01:07 horrific crimes. We have 1,400 dead. We have people that have been mutilated and burned
01:13 alive.
01:14 When she was released, Yochaved said she had no ill will towards Palestinians.
01:18 The whole of Gaza is taken hostage by Hamas. These people are criminals. They are a terrorist
01:26 organization that is worse than ISIS, worse than Boko Haram. The crimes they've committed
01:32 are impossible to even say on evening news. So these people, my mom has no affinity with.
01:39 She knows many people in Gaza. She met them over the years. She has seen that like us,
01:45 there's human beings there.
01:46 Journalists also say the U.S. government is pressuring Israel to ease the humanitarian
01:50 catastrophe in Gaza by allowing some more fuel in to operate hospitals. Meanwhile, the
01:55 Israeli army has intensified its offensive in some parts of Gaza ahead of a potential
02:00 ceasefire.
02:01 Shona Murray, Euronews, Jerusalem.
02:04 [Whoosh]
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