Hamas has put in their opening bid for Phase Two of the ceasefire - they will release all of the remaining hostages in one go in exchange for Israel complying with their requirements of Phase Two also being done in one go. This is the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli custody and the complete withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza. Essentially, a permanent end to the "war". Just something to keep in mind when the entirety of media insists that it is Hamas that's holding up the peace process or when genocide defenders say that Hamas could end the war simply be freeing all of the hostages. Hamas is saying "we will free all of the hostages to end the war" - a position I might note that they offered in October 2023.
This in spite of the last news of the ceasefire being that Phase One was fragile and precarious. Well, Hamas did release the hostages they were scheduled to as per the deal. Supposedly because Israel had allowed some of the pre-fab homes into the territory. Since that update I've learned that Hamas did have a point about Israel not complying with the terms of the deal with respect to the surge of aid that was supposed to be getting into Gaza. Apparently during Phase One, Israel must allow at least 60,000 temporary homes and 200,000 tents into Gaza - the actual amount that had entered by the point Hamas threatened to withhold hostages? Zero of the 60,000 temporary homes and 20,000 of the 200,000 tents. I don't know if that has actually improved - there are still a lot of new reports that Israel is blocking this aid.
There is one interesting takeaway from this offer that likely won't be noticed. It's about Hamas' capabilities and their continued coherence as a group - despite the assassinations of their leaders. The specifics of this current ceasefire deal were in place as early as May 2024 - and one of the reasons given as to why Hamas needed the two six week periods to return the hostages was because they did not have adequate control of all of the hostages in order to return them. This makes sense - the hostages were taken by not just Hamas, but various other resistance groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Hamas would need to coordinate with allied but not controlled groups in order to agree. Furthermore - one of the characteristics of these groups is that they are decentralized. Basically, numerous cells of agents acting with very little direct control. It's likely that Hamas did not know exactly how many hostages they had in custody for a significant fraction of the war - with various agents holed up all across the enclave.
But now they are saying they will return all of the remaining hostages - meaning they have control over the people holding the hostages, possibly for the first time since October 7th. IOW, they've not only refilled their ranks with new recruits, but they've established communication and control with everyone that was holding hostages. Something they did not have back in May. This is bad for the Israelis. It means that they've not only strengthened Hamas in terms of their influence and support - but also, the killing of the old leaders has resulted in a more efficient and effective control system over the resistance fighters.