Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Monday that a truce in Gaza has been extended for two more days.
“An agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Hamas said on Monday it had agreed with Qatar and Egypt to a two-day extension of the truce with Israel under the same conditions as the previous four-day ceasefire.
“An agreement has been reached with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt to extend the temporary humanitarian truce by two more days, with the same conditions as in the previous truce,” a Hamas official said in a phone call with Reuters.
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Earlier, three Egyptian security sources said Hamas was seeking a four-day extension while Israel wanted day-by-day extensions, with negotiations continuing over which Palestinians would be freed from Israeli prisons. Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. have been acting as mediators since hostages were taken as part of Hamas militants’ attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby in Washington said the White House welcomed the pause and hoped it could be extended beyond just two days.
LISTEN | What led to the deal between Israel and Hamas?
Front Burner30:23How the Israel-Hamas hostage deal happened
Featured VideoHow did Israel and Hamas reach a deal that led to a brief pause in fighting and the release of dozens of captives on both sides of the conflict? Julian Borger, a Washington-based world affairs editor with the Guardian takes us through the tense negotiations. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
An Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday that the total number of hostages still held in Gaza was now 184, including 14 foreigners and 80 Israelis with dual nationality.
Meanwhile, a fourth exchange of Hamas-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel was planned for later Monday.
On Sunday, Hamas freed 17 people, including four-year-old Israeli-American girl Abigail Edan, whose parents were killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. That brought the total number of people the militant group has released since Friday to 58, while 117 Palestinians have been freed.
Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan, speaking to Lebanon’s LBC broadcaster, said the group would try to find more hostages to release and thus prolong the truce. Hamas has previously said it is not holding all the hostages who were brought to Gaza.
WATCH | Red Cross seeking access to hostages in Gaza:
Featured VideoSarah Davies, with the International Committee of the Red Cross, says the safety of hostages remains the top priority as teams try to gain access to people being held by Hamas.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres pushed on Monday for a full humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas instead of a temporary truce, as the “humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is getting worse by the day.”
Guterres again called for the hostages held by Hamas to be released immediately and unconditionally, his spokesperson said.
‘Extremely emotional’
Among those released over the weekend were the wife and three children of Avichai Brodutch.
Aharon Brodutch, who lives in Toronto, was in Israel to see his brother Avichai reunited with his family after seven weeks of anxious waiting, which included several hours on Saturday where the deal to free hostages appeared to be in jeopardy due to disagreements over aid deliveries into Gaza.
“We knew that things were not certain until we saw them,” said Aharon Brodutch, who was anxiously waiting at the Schneider Children’s Medical Centre, alongside families of other hostages, for the helicopter transporting them to touch down.
Hagar Brodutch, 38, and children Ofri, 10, Uval, 8, and Uriah, 4, finally met again with Avichai, who has held a one-man vigil outside Israel’s Defence Ministry building in Tel Aviv in recent weeks.
“Extremely emotional,” Aharon Brodutch said of the reunion. “You could see on Hagar’s face what a tough time she’s had there.”
The Brodutches were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, an Israeli farming community of 750 that was brutalized during the Oct. 7 attack.
Aharon says his brother Avichai left his family to try to fight off attackers and was injured as a result. When he returned home, he discovered his family had been taken hostage, along with Edan, the four-year-old Israeli-American girl, who had run toward the Brodutch’s house amid the chaos while her two older brothers survived by sheltering in a closet for hours.
Aharon Brodutch told CBC News that Edan was with Hagar Brodutch and her children the entire time they were in captivity.
“It was tough. [Hagar] had to hold her own kids plus Abigail,” said Aharon Brodutch. “That is not easy to kind of keep everyone’s spirits up.”
Israel promises ‘elimination of Hamas’ when truce ends
The truce agreed last week is the first halt in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people, including several Canadians, as well as taking about 240 hostages back into Gaza.
In response to that attack, Israel has bombarded the enclave and mounted a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza health authorities say, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Featured VideoA director with the UN agency tasked with aiding Palestinians said teams are trying to get into hard-hit Gaza City and surrounding areas.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday he hoped the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas can go on.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke to Biden about the hostage release, adding he would welcome extending the temporary truce if more hostages could be freed.
However, Netanyahu said 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.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have left their homes in northern Gaza, which has borne the brunt of Israel’s military assault, to seek refuge in tents, schools or the homes of friends and relatives in the southern part of the strip.
As it pummelled Hamas targets in the northern Gaza Strip in recent weeks, Israel had urged residents to head south, but some have stayed put, including a few doctors and nurses at Gaza City’s Kamal Edwan medical complex tending to patients, including children, who they said cannot be moved.
West Bank Palestinians rejoice
Palestinians gave the freed prisoners a jubilant reception in Ramallah, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Omar Abdullah Al Hajj, 17, one of the detainees released on Sunday, told Reuters he’d been kept in the dark about what was happening in the outside world.
“I can’t believe I’m free now but my joy is incomplete because we still have our brothers who remain in prison, and then there is all the news about Gaza that I am having to learn about now,” said Al Hajj, whom Israel’s Justice Ministry accused of belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group and posing a security threat that it did not specify.
The latest three Thai hostages released were in good health, Thailand’s prime minister said. Efforts to free the remaining 15 Thais would continue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added.
A United Nations official who took part in a humanitarian convoy to northern Gaza said on Sunday aid groups were on track to deliver the biggest shipment in over a month, describing thin, gaunt residents slaking their thirst as soon as water arrived.
“People are so desperate, and you can see in adults’ eyes they haven’t eaten,” the UN children’s agency’s James Elder told Reuters by video link from southern Gaza after returning from Gaza City.
Featured VideoU.S. President Joe Biden says he’s working to keep the Israel-Hamas truce going as long as possible, but he’s facing pressure to change his approach to Israel by adding conditions to U.S. support.
Even as the aid deliveries flowed north, Elder said he saw hundreds of Gazans heading in the other direction, fearing the renewal of Israeli bombardments if the four-day truce is not prolonged.
“People are so terrified that this pause won’t be continued,” he said.