By Ken Afor
A top Egyptian official, Monday, mentioned that Egypt and Qatar are close to inking an understanding to prolong the ceasefire amongst Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza for two days, in order to keep the suspension of hostilities, which has been on-going for seven weeks, and resulted in thousands of deaths as well as the catastrophic destruction that has occurred in the Palestinian region.
Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), had announced that 20 Israeli hostages held by Hamas during an attack in October 7 in southern Israel would be released in exchange for the freedom of 60 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
The four-day ceasefire is expected to end on Monday night.
On Monday, 11 Israeli hostages are expected to be released as negotiations continue for the release of 33 Palestinians, according to Rashwan.
Previously, Hamas had reportedly asked for a four-day extension while Israel had requested day-by-day extensions.
An Israeli official has stated that they would be willing to allow an extra day of truce for the release of each group of 10 hostages, and in exchange, three times the number of Palestinian prisoners would be set free each time; this arrangement, however, has a limit of five days, as noted by the official.
Josef Borrell, the foreign police chief of the European Union, declared that an extension was feasible and this would allow the global society to craft a political solution to the dispute.
TheNewDiplomat had earlier reported that a ceasefire was negotiated, bringing an initial end to the combat that had been raging for the past seven weeks since Hamas initiated a deadly attack on Israel, leading to the death of 1200 people and the kidnapping of around 240 hostages to be taken back to Gaza.
Israel has reacted to the attack by launching airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and commencing a ground offensive in the north. Palestinian health authorities record a death toll of 14,800 and numerous displacements of hundreds of thousands of citizens.
Areas spanning a large part of the territory administered by Hamas have been destroyed by Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling, leading to a humanitarian disaster brought on by the scarcity of food, fuel, water, and medicines.
Hamas released 17 individuals, among them a 4-year-old Israeli-American child, on Sunday, increasing the total number set free by the radical organization since Friday to 58, including overseas nationals. On the same day, Israel liberated 39 Palestinian teenagers, bringing the total number of Palestinians liberated within the framework of the ceasefire to 117.
As per the terms of the present agreement, Hamas must release a total of 50 Israeli women and children currently held as hostages in the Gaza Strip. There is no restriction on the amount of foreigners they are allowed to release.
On Monday, a spokesperson for the Israeli government stated that 184 hostages remain in Gaza, of which 14 are from foreign countries and 80 possess Israeli dual citizenship.
Qatari mediators are trying to assist Israel and Hamas in overcoming their worries about Monday’s lists and preventing further postponements, as reported by an individual who was advised about the situation, to Reuters.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently looking over the roster of Palestinian prisoners Hamas provided for Sunday’s release and will be providing more details when they can.
Netanyahu said at the weekend that once the truce ends, “we will return with full force to achieve our goals: the elimination of Hamas; ensuring that Gaza does not return to what it was; and of course the release of all our hostages.”
