Hungary is working for the release two possible Hungarian hostages, who are male, in addition to those already let go from the Gaza Strip, once women and children are set free, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Monday in Brussels.
At the press conference after a meeting of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council, Szijjártó welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which had afforded the release of hostages and saved lives.
Hamas has made it clear that only women and children would be released for now, and three of five abducted Hungarian citizens have been set free accordingly, he said.
Szijjártó noted the “multiple times” he had spoken with his Qatar counterpart, who had assured him of his assistance and had provided constant updates on the state of the negotiations. Hungary, he added, was grateful.
Though Budapest knew the names of the Hungarian hostages on the list, “we didn’t make this public as doing so would have jeopardised the success of the operation…” he said.
Information about the release of hostages were only made public when they were “already safe on Israeli soil,” he added.
While there were two men of Hungarian citizenship “definitely” still in the captivity of Hamas, “we don’t know about any of them in terms of their location…” he said.
“The longer the ceasefire, the better, given the higher chance that as many innocent people as possible may be freed from the captivity of Hamas,” Szijjártó said.
As we wrote yesterday, Hamas released another group of hostages on Sunday, two Hungarian children among them, details HERE.
Also we wrote about the latest poll, Hungarians worry about Islamist terrorism and sympathise with Israel, details HERE.