- Qatar, acting as mediator, said the truce will be extended until Friday, minutes before it was set to end
A truce between Israel and Hamas will be extended, both sides announced moments before the current deal was due to expire.
The halt in fighting, extended from its initial four days, was due to lapse at 5am local time, when mediator Qatar said the pause would be extended until Friday.
A statement from Israel said: “In light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue.”
Hamas, which freed 16 hostages in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday, said in a statement that the truce would continue for a seventh day.
The militant group earlier said Israel had refused to receive a further seven women and children and the bodies of three other hostages in exchange for extending the truce. Both sides had said they were ready to resume fighting.
There had been pressure to extend the pause to allow more hostage releases and additional aid into devastated Gaza, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Israel for talks on Wednesday night, his third trip to the region since the 7 October attack.
He was set to meet Israeli leaders to discuss extending the temporary truce and boosting humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“Looking at the next couple of days, we’ll be focused on … doing what we can to extend the pause so that we continue to get more hostages out and more humanitarian assistance in,” Blinken said at a stop in Brussels.
The truce has brought a temporary halt to fighting that started on 7 October when Hamas militants crossed over the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Hamas officials, and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.
US President Joe Biden was determined to secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas after American Liat Beinin was freed on Wednesday, the White House said in a statement.
The US was urging Israel to narrow the zone of combat and clarify where Palestinian civilians could seek safety during any Israeli operation in southern Gaza, US officials said on Wednesday, to prevent a repeat of the massive death toll from Israel’s northern Gaza attacks.
Ninety-seven hostages have been freed since the start of the truce, according to a Reuters tally. The Israeli military says 145 hostages remain in Gaza.
On Wednesday night, two Russian citizens and four Thai citizens were released outside the framework of the agreement while the 10 Israeli citizens freed included five dual nationals, officials said. They were a Dutch dual citizen, who is also a minor, three German dual citizens and one US dual citizen.
The ceasefire and release of hostages and prisoners was mediated by Qatar, another country pushing for an extended truce.
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, gaining power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Its stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. Some countries list only its military wing as a terrorist group. Other countries voted against a UN resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety, as a terrorist organisation.
Hamas has said throughout the truce its “fingers remain on the trigger”. Israel has said the conflict will continue until all the hostages are freed and Hamas is eliminated.
In 2014, when Israel last launched a major land invasion in Gaza, it took 49 days for both sides to implement a ceasefire deal, but that brought major fighting to an end for several years.
@SBS