Hamas confirms the extension and says that the new pact will be given “under the same conditions” as the previous one
The Qatari authorities announced this Monday that Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) have reached an agreement to extend the truce for another two days in the Gaza Strip.
The spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Mayid al Ansari, has indicated that “as part of the ongoing negotiation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for two additional days” in Gaza, according to a message broadcast through from his X account, formerly known as Twitter.
Al Ansari later highlighted in statements to Al Jazeera that this extension of the truce is a “moment of hope” and that he hopes that the number of hostages freed can increase and that the ground will be “prepared for a more sustainable truce.”
“We have confirmation from Hamas that 20 additional hostages will be released in the next two days. On the Palestinian side it means that (…) 60 Palestinians will be released from Israeli prisons,” he explained.
Al Ansari has highlighted that humanitarian aid will also continue to enter the Gaza Strip taking advantage of the cessation of attacks. The spokesperson stressed that “every day of calm that we can achieve is obviously a treasure for the people of Gaza, in particular because of the influx of humanitarian aid.”
Now the objective is to negotiate a new extension in the 48 hours remaining until the truce agreed upon by the parties expires. “We hope that this momentum will help us open the door to negotiations for a more lasting and sustainable truce,” he explained.
The Qatari diplomat explained that the objective is to free all the children and women and then the civilian men. “Then we will begin to negotiate about the military personnel who are being held,” he said.
For its part, Hamas has confirmed that it has reached an agreement “with its brothers in Qatar and Egypt to extend the temporary humanitarian truce for another two days under the same conditions” as the pact in force until this Monday, as indicated by the newspaper. Palestinian ‘Filastin’.
Thus, the Palestinian armed group would be preparing a new list of hostages to facilitate this expansion, according to sources close to the matter. The Israeli Government, on the other hand, has not yet commented on the matter.
