The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced on Saturday that an Israeli soldier held by the Front in Gaza was killed in an Israeli air strike that also injured a number of his detainees.

A spokesman for the military wing said that the air strike occurred after a failed attempt by an Israeli special force to free the soldier.

The spokesman did not provide details about when this soldier was captured or where he was being held in Gaza.

On Friday, Axios revealed details regarding the ongoing talks to release hostages held by Hamas in exchange for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza.

The website quoted three Israeli officials as saying that Qatari mediators informed Israel that “Hamas agreed in principle” to resume talks on a new agreement, to secure the release of about 30 hostages held in Gaza, in exchange for a cessation of fighting for several weeks.

According to Axios, Israeli officials hope to obtain further clarification over the weekend, to find out whether Hamas is actually serious about the new agreement.

Twelve weeks after the attack launched by Hamas fighters on towns in southern Israel, which they say killed 1,200 and took 240 hostages, Israeli forces turned large areas of the Gaza Strip into rubble.

Mediation efforts undertaken by Egypt and Qatar to negotiate a ceasefire have not yielded fruit since the collapse of a week-long truce at the end of November.