The truce between Israel and Hamas was extended by two days in the Gaza Strip and a group of 11 hostages, including three French citizens, were handed over to the Red Cross.
After the announcement of the extension of the truce, the Israeli army confirmed that 11 hostages had just been released by Hamas. This fourth group was handed over to the Red Cross. According to some sources, three French citizens were among the released hostages.
The four-day truce in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, which came into force on Friday, is extended by two days, Qatar, mediator of this agreement, declared on Monday.
Hamas confirmed Monday that the truce with Israel in Gaza, set to expire Tuesday morning, would be extended until 7:00 a.m. Thursday (05:00 GMT), after announcing it was “working on a new list of hostages” to be released.
The Palestinian Islamist movement announced in a press release “an agreement with the Qatari and Egyptian brothers for an extension of the temporary humanitarian truce which will be two additional days with the same conditions as the previous truce.”
Israel had proposed an extension of the truce with Hamas if the Palestinian Islamist movement continued to release hostages, at a time when international pressure is increasing to obtain a longer pause in the fighting in Gaza.
This truce, which was due to end on Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. (05:00 GMT), also allowed the entry of hundreds of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, besieged and devastated by seven weeks of Israeli bombings in retaliation for the The bloody attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7.
According to an Egyptian security source, the two parties were working on the terms of an extension.
“Israel insists on renewing the truce day after day,” while the mediating countries, Qatar, the United States and Egypt, are proposing a break of “several days,” this source told AFP on Monday.
After American President Joe Biden, the European Union and NATO called on Monday for an extension of the truce.
This additional respite would make it possible “to provide more aid to populations in great need and to obtain the release of other hostages,” underlined NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Israel offered Hamas an “option” on Monday to extend the truce and “receive 50 additional hostages”, according to a government spokesperson.
The initial agreement provided for four days of truce, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt, as well as the release of 50 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
Israel said that beyond the four days, the release of “ten additional hostages” – compared to 30 prisoners – would lead to “an additional day of break”.
“Other hostages released”
“There are provisions for the release of ten more hostages every day and that is a blessing,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday after an interview with Joe Biden.
“But I also told the president that we will, after the agreement, return to our objective: to eliminate Hamas and to ensure that the Gaza Strip is no longer what it was,” added Mr. Netanyahu, who must ask the government on Monday for a “war” budget of 30 billion shekels (7.3 billion euros).
The American president said on Sunday that his objective was “to ensure that this pause continues (…) so that we can see other hostages released and more humanitarian aid” delivered to the Gaza Strip.
The head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, for his part, called on Monday for a “lasting” truce with a view to working on a “political solution” to the conflict.
Since Friday, 39 Israeli hostages have been released as part of the deal, along with 117 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, at a ratio of one hostage to three prisoners.
ADVERTISEMENTIn addition, 19 hostages were released without agreement, the majority of them Thais who worked in Israel.
Among the hostages released on Sunday was a four-year-old girl with American nationality, named Abigail.
According to a senior American official, his mother was murdered before his eyes during the Hamas attack. Her father tried to protect her before being killed in turn. Abigail then fled to neighbors, where she was taken hostage.
Abigail “no longer has parents, but she has a whole country that hugs her. We will take good care of her,” promised Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Sad and happy”
An Israeli soldier, freed by the army from Hamas at the end of October, welcomed the release of hostages on Monday, in her first public remarks since her release.
ADVERTISEMENTOri Megidish, 19, 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 on her Tiktok account, she said she was “doing well” and was “happy to see the moving images of hostages being reunited with their families.”
According to the Israeli authorities, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed during the attack launched by commandos of the Islamist movement 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, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, relentlessly bombing the Palestinian territory and launching a ground offensive on October 27, until the truce. .
In the Gaza Strip, 14,854 people, including 6,150 under the age of 18, were killed by Israeli strikes, according to the Hamas government.
In the occupied West Bank, crowds waving flags of Palestinian, Hamas and other Palestinian groups welcomed the freed prisoners on Sunday.
ADVERTISEMENT“I am sad for our martyrs and happy for the victory achieved by our resistance,” Yazan Sabah, a young released prisoner, told Beitunia.
