By Andrew Mills
DOHA (Reuters) -&nbsp;Qatari&nbsp;mediators&nbsp;are urging&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;to quicken the pace of&nbsp;hostage&nbsp;releases&nbsp;to include women and children held in Gaza and to do so without expecting Israeli concessions, according to three&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;and a source in the region familiar with the talks, as Israel readies a ground assault on the enclave.
The Gulf state, in coordination with the U.S., is leading mediation talks with&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;and Israeli officials over the release of more than 200&nbsp;hostages captured in the Palestinian group's cross-border onslaught on Oct 7.
Hamas&nbsp;on Monday freed two Israeli&nbsp;civilian&nbsp;women captives from the besieged enclave following the release of two&nbsp;hostages with dual U.S.-Israeli nationality on Friday.
Qatar&nbsp;is now discussing a larger release of&nbsp;civilians with&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;and Israel, a fifth source told Reuters on Tuesday after being briefed on the negotiations. The source said the talks were progressing.
The talks are not about any of the Israeli soldiers held by&nbsp;Hamas, the&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;and regional source familiar with the talks said.&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;says such captive soldiers are strategic assets the group can eventually exchange for major concessions from Israel.
In Washington, two U.S.&nbsp;sources&nbsp;said that it was the U.S. understanding that&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;is pushing&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;to release a large group of&nbsp;hostages immediately and without expecting any Israeli concessions in return.
Some 222 people aged from 9 months to 85 years were seized on Oct. 7 when&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;and other militants went on a killing spree through southern Israel, shooting motorists, hunting down&nbsp;civilians including children in their own homes, and burning and stabbing people to death, according to survivors' accounts.&nbsp;
LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE
In response, Israel has launched a bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 5,700 people, buried families in the rubble of their apartment blocks, maimed thousands and displaced a million people. It now plans a ground assault to destroy&nbsp;Hamas.
Among the arguments three of the&nbsp;sources&nbsp;say&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;may be using in its contacts with&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;is that releasing a large group of&nbsp;civilian&nbsp;hostages would ease a big logistical burden for the militant group as it navigates its confrontation with Israel.
Feeding and accommodating the captives, and tending to those who are wounded, are difficult for&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;at a time when it is bracing for an Israeli assault and there is little food or medicine to spare for Gaza's 2.3 million population, the&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;and source said.
Keeping track of the captives, held by several groups in various locations, makes this task even more onerous, three of the&nbsp;sources&nbsp;said.
A source in the region familiar with the&nbsp;hostage&nbsp;negotiations said it appeared that&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;had not anticipated taking so many&nbsp;hostages and had not made preparations for keeping so many individuals. Israeli officials have said many of the captives could be held in the warren of tunnels under Gaza.
When its fighters stormed into Israel on Oct 7, "Hamas&nbsp;did not expect the operation would be as catastrophically successful as it was. Now they have all these&nbsp;hostages and they don't know what to do with them," the source in the region added.
Qatar&nbsp;has also argued to&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;that a large&nbsp;civilian&nbsp;release could reap diplomatic benefits by showing the group, seen as a terrorist organization by many Western countries, as sensitive to international humanitarian concerns over the captivity of children and other non-combatants, two of the&nbsp;sources&nbsp;said.
CAPTIVE SOLDIERS
A&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;representative in&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;did not respond to a request for comment. The&nbsp;Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to an email seeking comment.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli official said&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;was using the&nbsp;hostage&nbsp;crisis for propaganda, trying to present itself as humane by releasing a handful of people they kidnapped. The official described this as "Nazi psychological warfare".
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday that Washington wanted "to see all the&nbsp;hostages released. We want to see them released unconditionally, and we want to see them released as soon as possible."
A release of&nbsp;civilians would still leave&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;holding Israeli soldiers and security personnel.&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;spokesman Osama Hamdan said on Saturday the fate of Israeli army captives was related to a possible exchange of prisoners and in any case would not be discussed until Israel stopped attacking Gaza.
Qatar, which has ambitious foreign policy goals, has a direct line of communication with&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;and Israel. It has previously helped mediate truces between the two.
A U.S. priority is to allow more time for negotiations on the release of&nbsp;hostages. But time may be running short.
The U.S. has advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault and is keeping&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;apprised of that effort as the Gulf state seeks to mediate further&nbsp;hostage&nbsp;releases, two&nbsp;sources&nbsp;in Washington briefed on the&nbsp;hostage&nbsp;negotiations said on Monday.
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(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, James Mackenzie in Jerusalem and Edmund Blair in Beirut, Editing by William Maclean and Nick Macfie)

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Qatar hostage mediators press Hamas on civilian releases -diplomats, sources