Qatari negotiators have announced that Israel and Hamas have agreed to extend its temporary truce by another day, mere minutes before it was set to expire at 07:00 local time (05:00 UTC) on Thursday morning (November 30).
The Associated Press reported that negotiations on extending the truce came down to the wire, with last-minute disagreements over the hostages to be freed by Hamas in exchange for another day of a pause in fighting.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry said that the truce was being extended under the same terms as in the original four-day deal.
Prior to the agreement, a last-minute standoff ensued in the early hours of Thursday morning, with Hamas claiming that Israel had rejected a proposed list that included seven living captives and the remains of three who the group said were killed in previous Israeli airstrikes. Israeli authorities, on the other hand, later said that Hamas submitted a modified list to ensure the extension would be agreed upon.
Extending Beyond 7 Days
Negotiators had been working into Thursday to further extend the truce beyond one week, with the expectation being to extend the pause for at least another day or two, with a focus on releasing women and children.
However, the talks appear to become more difficult as most of the women and children held by Hamas have already been freed, and the militants were expected to seek greater releases in exchange for the liberation of men and captured soldiers.
Meanwhile, international pressure has mounted for the truce to continue and develop as a permanent ceasefire after nearly eight weeks of Israeli bombardment and ground campaign in Gaza that has killed thousands of Palestinians, uprooted three-quarters of the strip's 2.3 million population, and led to an exacerbated humanitarian crisis.
Israel Maintains its Commitment to Crush Hamas Post-Truce
Israel has also welcomed the release of Hamas hostages in recent days and said it would maintain the truce if the group kept on freeing captives.
Nevertheless, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday (November 29) that his country would resume its war to eliminate Hamas and end its 16-year regime in Gaza.
"After this phase of returning our abductees is exhausted, will Israel return to fighting? So my answer is an unequivocal yes," he said. "There is no way we are not going back to fighting until the end."
Netanyahu's statement came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would be expected to press for further extensions of the truce and hostage releases in his latest visit to Israel.
