Gaza truce to be extended by 48 hours, Hamas and Qatar say

Palestinian Territories – AFP

A truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be extended by two days, the Palestinian group and mediator Qatar said Monday, opening the way for further releases of prisoners.

With just hours to go before the so-called “humanitarian pause” was to end early Tuesday, Hamas said that an agreement had been reached to prolong it by 48 hours under the existing terms.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli side of the extension.

Qatar — with the support of the United States and Egypt — has been engaged in intense negotiations to establish and prolong the truce in Gaza.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari announced that “an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas said it was drawing up a new list of hostages for release.

But both sides are under pressure to build on the break in hostilities to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza, where Israel’s attacks have killed 15,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s government.

The Qatari announcement came after US President Joe Biden, top EU envoy Josep Borrell and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg all joined a global chorus urging the parties to extend their temporary break in fighting.

– Agreement welcomed –

The White House welcomed the agreement to extend the truce.

“We would of course hope to see the pause extended further, and that will depend upon Hamas continuing to release hostages,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby said that “in order to extend the pause, Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children.”

The EU’s Borrell had called for the pause to be prolonged “to make it sustainable and long lasting while working for a political solution.”

“Nothing can justify the indiscriminate brutality Hamas unleashed against civilians,” he said. “But one horror cannot justify another horror.”

– Public health ‘catastrophe’ –

Inside Gaza, the health ministry complained that, despite the four-day pause, no fuel had been taken to generators in hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip.

And Yahya al-Siraj, the mayor of Gaza City, complained that without fuel the territory could not pump clean water nor clear waste accumulating in the streets, warning of a potential public health “catastrophe”.

A French warship arrived in the Egyptian town of El-Arish near the border with Gaza to serve as a hospital for wounded civilians, a port source said.