The ongoing ceasefire negotiation between Hamas and Israel hit a snag after the terror group made a devastating revelation.

According to a Thursday report in The Wall Street Journal, Hamas may not have the required number of live hostages to negotiate a ceasefire deal. While Hamas still has over 130 hostages in captivity, Israel is demanding just 40 of them for the ceasefire deal.

The United States, alongside Israel and other international negotiators, has been working to strike a temporary ceasefire deal with Hamas. The deal requires Israel to agree to a six-week ceasefire, along with the release of Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas, on the other hand, will release 40 civilian hostages in exchange.

However, negotiations took a sudden twist when the terror group was unable to guarantee it has enough living civilian hostages to meet the demands.

According to a Hamas official who spoke with WSJ, the terror group may not be able to release 40 living hostages to Israel. The official revealed that Hamas could do a deal with 40 hostages, meaning some of the hostages released may already be dead.

The Hamas official’s admission has stoked fears among the family of the hostages. The revelation also threatens to derail weeks of negotiation for the ceasefire. Should Hamas fail to uphold its end of the deal, the fighting could continue without any restraint.

Hamas’ failure to meet the requirement could also put the Israeli government in a difficult position due to the domestic pressure it is facing from the families of the hostages.

Hadas Kalderon, the mother of two children who were kidnapped by Hamas and later freed, insisted that hostages face dangers every day without a deal.

“Every day without a deal endangers them. For half a year, they have been toying with their lives, permitting their blood to be spilled,” said Hadas during a protest outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

Hamas is still holding the father of Kalderon’s children in captivity.

Ofer Merin, director-general at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and a member of the committee tasked with determining hostage deaths from afar using classified intelligence, spoke on the families’ mindset.

“It’s been six months since these people were taken into Gaza. These families have no second in the day or a second in the night that their minds are calm. They are in constant agony,” said Merin.

So far, Merin’s committee has confirmed the death of 46 hostages held in captivity.