CAIRO, April 23. /TASS/. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on the radical Palestinian group Hamas to release Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip so as "not to give Israel an excuse" to carry out military actions in the enclave; the Al Hadath TV channel broadcast his speech at the meeting of the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Ramallah. "Our number one priority right now is to end the war of extermination that the Gaza Strip is being subjected to. It must end; hundreds of people die in Gaza every day. Stop giving the Israelis an excuse, release them (hostages - TASS)," the Palestinian president urged Hamas. He also called on the radicals to hand over arms and control of Gaza over to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the West Bank and convert itself into a political party that "operates under international law." "Peace in the Middle East is possible if the Israeli occupation ends and an independent State of Palestine is established. To achieve this, we need to resolve the existing differences and eliminate the intra-Palestinian split," Abbas is convinced. According to the PNA chief, Hamas, having seized power in Gaza in 2007, "brought six military conflicts" to the enclave, giving Israel a "pretext" for the current hostilities. On January 15, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement to release the hostages held in Gaza and declare a ceasefire in the enclave. The three-phase deal took effect on January 19. During its first phase, which ended on March 1, the parties were supposed to agree on the implementation of the second phase of the deal but they failed to do so. On March 18, the Israeli military resumed military operations in Gaza, carrying out intensive strikes on the enclave. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that the move was due to Hamas’s rejection of proposals put forward by mediators and Witkoff, and added that the goal of the operation was to ensure the release of all hostages held in Gaza. Hamas, in turn, blamed Israel and the US for the resumption of military activities. On April 17, Hamas announced that the latest Israeli ceasefire proposal included impossible conditions. However, Hamas’ leader in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya stated that the radicals were ready to engage in talks on the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, a complete ceasefire in the enclave, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces, the start of reconstruction works and the lifting of the Gaza blockade. According to the latest data from Israel, Hamas and its allies still hold 59 hostages in the Gaza Strip. One of the hostages is Maxim Kharkin, a native of Donbass whose close relatives are Russian nationals.