2023-11-27 19:15:00
Since the beginning of the truce, several hundred trucks with aid have entered the Gaza Strip / Photo: AFP.
Israel and Hamas agreed this Monday to extend for two more days a truce agreement in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages from the Islamist movement and Palestinian prisoners, Qatar, which acted as mediator, announced hours before the expiration of the pact.
The news was given by the Qatari Foreign Ministry in a message on the social network
There was no immediate confirmation from Israel, but Hamas issued a statement ratifying the extension of the agreement and thanking Qatar and Egypt for acting as mediators.
“Qatar announces that, as part of the ongoing mediation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for two additional days in the Gaza Strip,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said on X.
In its statement, Hamas said that “an agreement was reached with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt” to extend “the humanitarian truce for two additional days, with the same conditions as the previous truce.”
The State of Qatar announces, as part of the ongoing mediation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian pause for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip.
– Dr. Majid Mohammed Al Ansari Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 27, 2023
A total of 58 hostages – and around 120 Palestinian prisoners – have already been released since last Friday under the agreement extended this Monday, which was announced last week after lengthy negotiations sponsored by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Under the agreement, Israel accepted a four-day truce in its offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas due to the attacks by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israeli territory on October 7, which left some 1,200 dead, mostly civilians.
Some 240 people, including twenty Argentines, were kidnapped by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip.
More than 14,800 Palestinians, including some 6,000 children, have since been killed in Israeli bombings in Gaza, and 1.7 million of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants have had to flee their homes.
A fourth batch of hostages is due to be released this Monday by Hamas. Israeli media said it will be made up of 11 Israelis, nine boys and two women.
The Israeli government said it has already informed their families of their imminent release.
Since Friday, Hamas has also released 19 foreign hostages, mostly Thai, outside the agreement, which contemplated exchanging 50 Israeli hostages for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
The pact also contemplates that Israel allows humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
alarm light
On Saturday, when the release of the second batch of hostages finally took place, Hamas raised an alarm when it announced that it was delaying the procedure because it understood that Israel had “breached” the agreement, which was rejected by the Israeli government, which warned that if at midnight on Saturday the Islamist group continued to hold the hostages, it would consider the agreement fallen and resume hostilities.
Finally, after hours of intense efforts by Qatar and Egypt, the second group was released and fears of a negotiation for the hostages taken on October 7 were allayed. during the Hamas attack on Israeli territory where more than 1,200 people were killedmostly civilians, and took more than 240 people hostage, including twenty Argentines.
In this context, Israel participates in the negotiations for the release of hostages, but warns that hostilities against Hamas cannot be reversed.
Iran, which supports Hamas, He also asked that the truce “enter into a lasting process” and that “the crimes of the Zionist regime cease completely,” said Nasser Kanani, spokesman for the foreign ministry.
The agreement will allow the release of 50 hostages of the more than 200 held in Gaza / Photo: AFP.
Breath
The truce offered respite to Gazans, but the humanitarian situation remains “dangerous” and the needs “unprecedented,” estimated the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
Since Friday, Several hundred trucks with aid entered the Gaza Stripwhere Israel has applied a “total siege” since October 9 without the supply of water, food, electricity or medicine.
“We should send 200 trucks a day for at least two months to respond to the needs,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna told AFP. that in certain sectors there was “neither drinking water nor food”.
More than 14,800 Palestinians, including some 6,000 children, have since been killed in Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip, and 1.7 million of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the enclave had to abandon their homes by violence, according to Hamas.
The Israeli Army, which considers the northern third of the Strip a war zone, ordered the population to evacuate that area and prohibited the return of civilians during the trucealthough thousands of Gazans tried to return to their homes.
More than half of the homes in the territory were damaged or destroyed by warwhich caused the displacement of 1.7 of the 2.4 million inhabitants, the UN said.
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