The main negotiator on the fate of more than 200 hostages held in Gaza by Hamas says all civilians will be freed if the right conditions are met and especially if Israel reduces its shelling of Gaza.

He stressed that hostage releases cannot take place while Israel’s attacks continue.

“We want to stop the bombing, the total destruction, the genocide, so that the Al-Qassam soldiers can take the hostages from their positions and hand them over to the Red Cross or whoever. We need the right conditions to allow them to be released,” said senior Hamas official Khaled Meshaal, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt nearly three decades ago.

In his first Western television interview since the October 7 attacks, he told Sky News that civilians held by Hamas would be freed if Israel reduced the intensity of operations in Gaza.

Meshaal repeated claims that 22 hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since they were taken.

Hamas does not say which countries they came from, but says many of the dead are Israelis.