Doha, Qatar:
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be extended by two days, the Palestinian group and Qatar mediator said on Monday, paving the way for further releases of hostages and prisoners.
With just hours until the end of the so-called “humanitarian pause” early Tuesday, Hamas said it had agreed to extend it by 48 hours under existing conditions.
There was no immediate confirmation of the extension from the Israeli side, but it was welcomed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as “a glimpse of hope and humanity amid the darkness of war.”
Qatar, with support from the United States and Egypt, has conducted intensive negotiations to establish and extend the ceasefire in Gaza.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari announced that “an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for another two days.”
The State of Qatar announces that ongoing mediation has reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for another two days.
— د. More about Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 27, 2023
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and sparked the latest round of fighting with a bloody cross-border raid last month, said it was drawing up a new list of hostages to be released.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had informed families of the identities of the hostages, who are due to be released on Monday, the last day of the initial four-day ceasefire.
Israel has made clear that the pause is intended to allow Hamas to release more hostages it has been holding since the Oct. 7 attack, which Israeli officials said killed 1,200 Israelis, including many women and children.
But both sides are under pressure to use the pause in hostilities to allow humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, where Israel’s campaign against Hamas has claimed nearly 15,000 lives, mostly Palestinian civilians, according to the Hamas government in Gaza.
Qatar’s announcement came after US President Joe Biden, top EU envoy Josep Borrell and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg joined a global chorus calling on the parties to extend their temporary pause in fighting.
As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas has so far released 39 Israeli hostages, including a four-year-old girl who was orphaned by the group’s Oct. 7 attack. More are expected later on Monday.
Public health “disaster.”
Israel released 117 Palestinian prisoners under the terms of the deal.
At the same time, 19 foreign nationals were also released by Palestinian militants.
Tearful reunions of families and hostages have dissolved images of the death and suffering of the civilian population in the seven-week war.
“That is our goal, to sustain this pause beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages released and provide more humanitarian assistance to those in need,” Biden said Sunday.
The White House welcomed the agreement to extend the ceasefire.
“We certainly hope that the pause will be extended further, and that depends on Hamas continuing to release hostages,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Kirby said: “To extend the pause, Hamas has committed to releasing an additional 20 women and children.”
The EU’s Borrell called for the pause to be extended “to make it sustainable and permanent while working towards a political solution.”
“Nothing can justify the indiscriminate brutality that Hamas has unleashed against civilians,” he said. “But one horror cannot justify another horror.”
Three consecutive days of hostage releases have boosted spirits in Israel, with tearful reunions weeks after Hamas militants poured across the border on October 7.
The third group of hostages released Sunday included a four-year-old American citizen named Abigail, whose parents were both killed in the Hamas attacks.
In the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Health Ministry complained that despite the four-day standoff, fuel had not been delivered to generators at hospitals in northern Gaza.
And Yahya al-Siraj, the mayor of Gaza City, complained that without fuel the area could not pump clean water or clean up trash accumulating on the streets, warning of a potential “catastrophe” for public health.
A French warship has arrived in the Egyptian town of El-Arish, near the Gaza border, to serve as a hospital for wounded civilians, a port source said.
Fight “until victory”
Israel is under increasing pressure to extend the pause brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, although its leaders have rejected suggestions for a permanent halt to the offensive.
“We will continue until the end – until victory,” Netanyahu said Sunday in Gaza, the first visit by an Israeli prime minister since 2005.
His office has proposed a 90-day war budget of 30 billion shekels ($8 billion).
Netanyahu, wearing military uniforms and surrounded by soldiers, vowed to release all hostages and “eliminate Hamas” in footage released online by his office.
In another sign of growing international concern, UN rights experts on Monday called for independent investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October 7.
Morris Tidball-Binz, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, and Alice Jill Edwards, the special rapporteur on torture, issued a joint statement emphasizing the need for “swift, transparent and independent investigations.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)