Hamas says it will only release an American-Israeli and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel implements the existing ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, calling it an “exceptional deal” aimed at getting the truce back on track.

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to free an American-Israeli dual national if Israel begins a phase of ceasefire talks towards a permanent end to the war, but Israel dismissed the offer as "psychological warfare".

Arab countries reject Gaza displacement as ethnic cleansing, but Israeli officials say they are working on plans to make it happen, and polls suggest most Israelis are open to the idea.

The U.S. and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for moving Palestinians uprooted from the Gaza Strip under President Donald Trump's proposed postwar plan,

Israeli officials led by strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer have sounded out the governments of Somalia and Sudan, countries wracked by civil war, while US diplomats have been in contact with the breakaway province of Somaliland,