A senior Hamas official said the movement has held intensive talks with mediators to improve the lists of Palestinian prisoners scheduled for release.

He added in statements to Al Jazeera on Sunday evening that “mediators are still working to reach a final settlement regarding the prisoner lists despite Israeli refusal.”

He pointed out that “the resistance renewed its commitment to releasing Israeli prisoners according to the agreed-upon timeline.”

He confirmed that “the resistance has completed the counting of living prisoners and their distribution at points inside the Gaza Strip in preparation for the handover,” according to the channel’s breaking news.

The Prisoners Media Office confirmed on Sunday that “complex obstacles” still prevent the official announcement of the prisoner lists to be released within the anticipated exchange deal, which includes prisoners from Gaza as well as women and children in Israeli prisons.

The office explained in a statement to Shehab News Agency that efforts are ongoing around the clock to overcome these obstacles and complete the necessary procedures to ensure the deal’s implementation as agreed by the concerned parties.

It noted that consultations and discussions are still ongoing to reach a final formula fully adopting the lists, clarifying that the announcement process will take place once the final names are approved up to the last name included in the deal.

The Palestinian public eagerly awaits the details of the deal, which is expected to include the release of batches of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a number of Israeli detainees, as part of an agreement forming one of the key clauses of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Earlier, informed sources told Al-Sharq channel that Hamas insists that the final list of Palestinian prisoners to be released includes the “big seven,” including Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat.

The sources indicated that the mediators (Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey) are exerting maximum effort to overcome contentious points and reach the final list and exchange arrangements.

One source told Al-Sharq that Palestinian factions expressed their readiness during negotiations to hand over live Israeli detainees and some bodies on Sunday before the scheduled date on Monday “if an agreement is reached on the list of the seven senior leaders’ names.”