Hamas and Qatar announced on Monday the extension of the ceasefire in Gaza by 48 hours, subject to the new release of hostages from the Palestinian Islamist movement and prisoners in Israeli prisons.
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Israel did not immediately confirm this extension.
Hamas, which seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, had previously indicated that it was preparing a new list of hostages to be released to extend the ceasefire in the fight with Israel.
That ceasefire, originally scheduled to end at 7 a.m. Tuesday, also allowed hundreds of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged and destroyed for seven weeks by Israeli bombing in retaliation for the bloody Hamas attack against Israel on January 7 October.
AFP
After American President Joe Biden, the European Union and NATO called for an extension.
An additional breathing space would “provide more aid to the population in greatest need and ensure the release of more hostages” in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners, emphasized NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Israel offered Hamas an “option” to extend the ceasefire and “accept 50 additional hostages,” according to a government spokesman on Monday.
Israeli public opinion, traumatized by the Hamas attack, is strongly demanding the release of a larger number of hostages.
AFP
The original agreement included a four-day ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt, and the release of a total of 50 hostages kidnapped on October 7 and 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Israel claimed that releasing “ten additional hostages” – compared to 30 prisoners – beyond the four days would result in “an additional day of rest.”
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“Other hostages released”
“There are provisions for the release of 10 more hostages every day, and that is a blessing,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday after an interview with Joe Biden.
“But I also told the president that after the agreement we will return to our goal: eliminating Hamas and ensuring that the Gaza Strip is no longer what it was,” added Mr. Netanyahu, who headed the government on Monday must ask for a “war budget” of 30 billion shekels.
The American president said on Sunday that his goal was to “ensure that this pause continues (…) so that more hostages can be released and more humanitarian aid can be brought to the Gaza Strip.”
For his part, the European Union’s diplomatic chief Josep Borrell called for a “permanent” ceasefire to work on a “political solution” to the conflict.
The families of the Israeli hostages, who are due to be released on Monday evening, have been informed after a day of intensive negotiations, the prime minister’s office said.
Since Friday, 39 Israeli hostages and 117 Palestinians held by Israel have been released under the deal, at a ratio of one hostage to three prisoners.
AFP
In addition, 19 hostages were released without consent, most of them Thais working in Israel.
Among the hostages released on Sunday was a four-year-old American girl named Abigail.
According to a senior American official, his mother was murdered in front of him during the Hamas attack. Her father tried to protect her before he was killed too. Abigail then fled to neighbors where she was taken hostage.
Abigail “no longer has parents, but she has an entire country that embraces her. “We will take good care of them,” promised Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Sad and happy”
An Israeli soldier who was freed from Hamas by the army in late October welcomed the release of the hostages on Monday in her first public comments since her release.
19-year-old Ori Megidish was on guard duty at the ultra-militarized border between Israel and the Gaza Strip when she was captured on October 7. In a video posted to her TikTok account, she said she was “doing well” and was “happy to see the moving images of the hostages being reunited with their families.”
At that moment, an Israeli soldier rescued from Hamas captivity in Gaza during a ground operation was reunited with his family and released by the Israeli government.
Ori Megidish hugs a woman described by the government as her grandmother 🔗 https://t.co/k3Y6LZBLs9 pic.twitter.com/HUPNGfVPqr
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 30, 2023
According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians, were killed in the attack by Islamist movement commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip. The army estimated the total number of hostages kidnapped on October 7 at 240.
In retaliation, Israel promised to “eliminate Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel,” to relentlessly bomb Palestinian territory and to launch a ground offensive on October 27 until the ceasefire.
According to the Hamas government, 14,854 people, including 6,150 under the age of 18, were killed by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.
In the occupied West Bank on Sunday, crowds carrying flags of Palestinians, Hamas and other Palestinian groups greeted the released prisoners.
AFP
“I am sad for our martyrs and happy for the victory of our resistance,” Yazan Sabah, a young released prisoner, told Beitunia.
“No fuel”
Since Friday, several hundred trucks loaded with aid have been able to enter the Gaza Strip via Egypt, some of them reaching the north, the most devastated part of the territory.
If the ceasefire gives the population a respite, the need in the area will be “unprecedented,” requiring “200 trucks a day for at least two months,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees estimated on Sunday (Unrwa).
“No fuel has been delivered to hospitals in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip since the ceasefire began,” Hamas Health Ministry Director General Mounir al-Bourch said on Monday.
According to the UN, more than half of the houses were damaged or destroyed by the war, and 1.7 million of the 2.4 million residents were displaced.
On Monday, two UN experts called for the launch of “swift, transparent and independent” independent investigations into “allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity” by all parties since October 7.