Qatar: Israel’s military has stated that the truce with Hamas will extend to its seventh day. The ceasefire will be extended into a seventh day, according to Hamas, which on Wednesday night released 16 hostages in return for 30 Palestinian prisoners.
The ceasefire will last “in light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing hostages, and subject to the terms of the agreement,” according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
It was planned that the six-day cease-fire in Gaza would expire on Thursday at 7 am local time (5 am GMT). The one-day extension of the ceasefire was confirmed by Qatar, which has been acting as a mediator.
Minutes before the deadline, Hamas declared early on Thursday that Israel had declined to accept the bodies of three more hostages as well as seven more women and children in return for an extension of the ceasefire. Both sides had said they were ready to resume fighting, with Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, telling its forces to “maintain high combat readiness in the last hours of the truce.”
Amidst international pressure for both sides to extend the pause to allow more hostage releases and additional aid into devastated Gaza, US Secretary of State Mr. Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for talks on Wednesday night. The directors of the CIA and Mossad, Mr. William Burns and Mr. David Barnea, spent a second day in Doha in talks with the Qatari government aimed at stretching the truce further, as per the statement. It was also reported that Mr. Abbas Kamel, the head of Egyptian intelligence, was present during the talks.
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