Israel, Hamas agree to extend truce until Thursday

The government of Qatar, the main mediator in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, announced on Monday afternoon a two-day extension of the truce that began last Friday morning. The two actors in the contest, as well as the United States, confirmed it minutes later. In this way, the ceasefire, widely demanded by the international community to curb the intensity of the conflict in Gaza, extends until the early hours of Thursday and the daily exchanges of hostages in the hands of jihadists in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails continue.

"An agreement has been reached with the Qatari and Egyptian brothers to extend the temporary humanitarian truce for two more days, with the same conditions as the previous truce," a source in the Palestinian fundamentalist movement told Reuters. Some of its leaders are already thinking about goals beyond that. "I hope that we can extend it until we reach the end of this war and the end of the aggression against our people in Gaza," Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told Al Jazeera. Hamad believes that, in addition to the support of Qatar and Egypt as mediators, that is what Western governments also crave. Israel, for its part, also confirmed the extension of the truce, according to a source consulted by the Haaretz newspaper.

In principle, the same pace will be maintained in these exchanges, so that between Tuesday and Wednesday it is expected that 20 more hostages will be released and 60 prisoners will be released. Throughout Monday, the fourth and final day of the truce agreed last week, optimism grew and has finally been endorsed as the parties prepare for the fourth of the exchanges supervised by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Eleven hostages are scheduled to be released today in exchange for 11 Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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The wind had been blowing in favor of this extension since both Israel and Hamas hinted that they sought to extend the entente. They were pressured by the international community, which sees the current parenthesis as a necessary opportunity for the army not to resume its attacks in response to the Hamas massacre on October 7, which triggered the conflict, which has left almost 15,000 dead in Gaza. This desire to extend the truce was promoted by the main mediators – Qatar, Egypt and the United States – as well as the European Union, NATO and the United Nations through its secretary general, António Guterres. Pressure was also coming from the domestic sphere to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially from the families of the fewer than 200 hostages estimated to still remain in the Palestinian Mediterranean enclave (including those who may have died during this time) and for whom their return home is the top priority. Even the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which is in charge of the West Bank but not Gaza, showed its support for the extension of the cessation of hostilities, which, at the same time, would give the punished population of Gaza a longer period of time to stock up in the event of a possible return of bombardment.

A Palestinian woman and girl walk through mud as they leave northern Gaza to move south during a truce agreed between Israel and Hamas on Monday. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (REUTERS)

A member of the Israeli military controls the area in Gaza City, which is part of the safe transit corridors established by Israel for the movement of Palestinians, on Monday. Ashraf Amra (Anadolu/Getty Images)

Khalil Zamaara, released from Israeli jail, reunites with his family on Monday in Hebron, West Bank, after the prisoner swap agreed between Israel and Hamas.Mamoun Wazwaz (Anadolu/Getty Images)

Elon Musk (left) stands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit on Monday to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, hit by the Hamas attack on October 7. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)

A Palestinian woman brushes a girl's hair, along with some of the belongings they have been able to recover amid the destruction, in the town of Khuzaa, near Khan Younis, on Monday. SAID KHATIB (AFP)

Dozens of people gathered on Monday to receive sacks of flour distributed by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (REUTERS)

Palestinian Samy Al Bahnasawy stands next to the body of his wife, who died in hospital in Egypt from war-torn wounds, as they cross the Rafah border back into Gaza on Monday. Amr Nabil (AP)

Dozens of Palestinians enjoyed a day at the beach on Monday in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, during the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas. STAFF (REUTERS)

A Palestinian woman presented her ration card to receive sacks of flour distributed by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Monday in Khan Younis. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (REUTERS)

Palestinians fled the northern Gaza Strip to the south, while several ambulances headed north near Gaza City on Monday during the fourth day of truce. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (REUTERS)

A boy held a cat next to the rubble of several buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Khan Younis on Monday.MOHAMMED SALEM (REUTERS)

A man carried several sacks of flour distributed by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Monday in Khan Younis. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (REUTERS)

Palestinians walked through the rubble of homes destroyed by Israeli strikes in Khan Younis on Monday. MOHAMMED SALEM (REUTERS)

A group of Palestinians evacuated from the Gaza Strip waited inside a bus after landing at Abu Dhabi airport on Monday, as part of a humanitarian mission organized by the United Arab Emirates.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, upon his arrival at the Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), held on Monday in Barcelona. JOSEP LAGO (AFP)

View of the meeting of the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) that analyzes the situation in the Middle East due to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, at its annual meeting held this Monday in Barcelona.Quique García (EFE)

The Israeli authorities had expressed their desire to extend the truce day by day while the intermediary countries try to scrape a more ambitious agreement of several days, as has been the case, according to a source in the field of Egyptian security quoted by Agence France Presse. Hamas, for its part, had proposed extending it from two to four days, according to the same agency. Egyptian government spokesman Diaa Rashwan said the parties were close to closing two more days of ceasefires in exchange for the departure of 20 hostages from Gaza and the release of 60 more prisoners from Israel. In the first three days of the truce, the Islamic Resistance Movement released 54 hostages and the Israeli authorities released 117 Palestinian prisoners.

In any case, Israel maintains that, once the hostages have been brought back, it will continue its attacks on the Strip to put an end to Hamas. "If you want peace, destroy Hamas," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted after accompanying the CEO of the social network X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, on his visit to one of the sites of the Hamas attacks on October 7.

Unlike the testimonies that emerge from released Palestinian prisoners, Israel jealously guards the information that hostages bring back from their weeks of captivity. It has emerged, for example, that Roni Krivoi, the Russian-Israeli citizen released on Sunday night, managed to escape from his captors and remained in hiding for four days before being recaptured, according to his aunt Elena Magid, the Times of Israel reports citing Radio Kan. The young man, released as a gesture by Hamas to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was in a building that was partly destroyed after one of the bombings and it was then that he took the opportunity to flee. "He managed to escape and hid by himself for several days. In the end, the Gazans captured him and returned him to the terrorists," Magid said.

Meanwhile, the most hardline wing of Netanyahu's government defends continuing to strengthen the presence of settlers – around half a million – in occupied areas of Palestine. In this regard, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday called for a budget of about 1.200 billion euros for these settlements, considered illegal, and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, to go ahead despite the restrictions imposed by the war on the country. That push for settlements comes at a time when residents are taking an active part in the rise in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

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