Israel has said it would extend the cease-fire by one day for every 10 additional
hostages released, Hamas has also said it hopes to extend the four-day truce
Tel Aviv, Nov 27: International mediators were pressing to extend a cease-fire in Gaza that has halted the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades but is set to expire after Monday, as Israel and Hamas prepared for a fourth exchange of militant-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel has said it would extend the cease-fire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released. Hamas has also said it hopes to extend the four-day truce, which came into effect Friday after several weeks of indirect negotiations mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
But Israel also says it remains committed to crushing Hamas’ military capabilities and ending its 16-year rule over Gaza. That would likely mean expanding its ground offensive from devastated northern Gaza to the south, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have crammed into United Nations shelters, and where dire conditions persist despite the ramping up of aid delivery under the truce. The release of dozens of people – mostly women and children – who were among the roughly 240 captured by Hamas in its wide-ranging Oct 7 attack into southern Israel that ignited the war has rallied Israelis behind calls to return the rest of them. Sixty-two hostages have been released, one was freed by Israeli forces, and two were found dead inside Gaza. “We can get all hostages back home. We have to keep pushing,” two relatives of Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old girl and dual Israeli American citizen who was released Sunday, said in a statement. Families of the hostages have led mass marches and demonstrations accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring them home, and the mounting pressure could push him to extend the truce and make additional concessions to Hamas. But Israel also remains deeply shaken by the Oct 7 attack and determined to remove the militant group as a threat.
“At the end of the day we will return every one,” Netanyahu said of the hostages, as he donned body armour and paid a rare visit Sunday to troops inside Gaza. “We are continuing until the end, until victory. Nothing will stop us.” (AP)
