Try the following
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(/pages/(.*[^/])/?)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /%2.html [L,R=302]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.html [L,R=302]
The first three lines will remove the folder pages
. If there is a trailing slash, it will be removed. The last three lines will redirect to /index.html
, if the request file does not exist.