Conflicts & War

Israel, Hamas agree to 2nd ceasefire extension for one day: Qatar

Cairo, Nov 30 (EFE).- Qatar announced Thursday the extension for one more day of the humanitarian truce between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, and in which both parties exchanged hostages for prisoners.

“The Palestinian and Israeli sides agreed to extend the humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip for another day,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in a statement.

He said these conditions are a ceasefire to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid, adding that the extension of the pause “within the framework of the joint mediation of Qatar, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the United States.”

The extension of the truce was announced by Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, and which hosts the political office of the Palestinian Islamist group, minutes before the temporary armistice expired at 5:00 GMT.

This will be the seventh day of the humanitarian pause that came into force Friday, and which allowed the cessation of hostilities for the first time since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, leaving 1,200 people dead and in which some 240 were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip.

Since then, 15,000 people have been killed and 36,000 injured in Israeli retaliatory bombings of Gaza, where an estimated 7,000 more people are still missing, either unknown or believed to be under rubble, according to authorities of the Palestinian enclave, controlled by Hamas.

During the first six days of the truce, 210 Palestinian prisoners have been released from prisons, all women and children, as part of the exchange pact for Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza by Palestinian militias, while Hamas has released 97 captives in Gaza, including 73 Israelis and 24 foreigners.

The announcement of the extension of the pause for one more day comes a few hours after the arrival in Israel of the US State Secretary Antony Blinken, where he plans to address a possible extension of the truce to achieve the release of more hostages still in Gaza.

There are believed to be around 145 captives still in the strip, and the proposal for an extension of the truce would involve the additional release of 10 people daily in exchange for Israel’s release of 30 Palestinian prisoners. EFE

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