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The extension of the truce, which will be a week old tomorrow, coincides with a new visit by Blinken to Israel and a terrorist attack in Jerusalem that has left three people dead

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AFP/ MOHAMMED ABED - Un vehículo de la Cruz Roja Internacional con rehenes liberados por Hamás cruza el paso fronterizo de Rafah en la Franja de Gaza hacia Egipto
AFP/ MOHAMMED ABED - An International Red Cross vehicle carrying hostages released by Hamas crosses the Rafah border crossing in the Gaza Strip into Egypt.
Margarita Arredondas
30/11/23

More Israeli hostages are expected to return home today after Jerusalem confirmed this morning the extension of the temporary ceasefire with Hamas. Israeli authorities have announced that the truce "will continue" after receiving a list of women and children under the terms of the agreement.

Hours earlier, during a meeting of Israel's war cabinet last night, it was unanimously decided that if Hamas did not deliver a list by 7 a.m. "as agreed in the initial outline", fighting would resume "immediately". This session took place in parallel with another meeting in Qatar between Israeli, US, Egyptian and Qatari representatives to discuss a possible extension of the truce. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas must release at least 10 hostages for each additional day of lull in fighting, while Israel must release 30 Palestinian women prisoners and minors for every ten hostages.

As one Israeli official revealed to Ynet, negotiations to extend the truce were "very difficult and very stressful". "There was a fight for every name. We are entering very difficult times. Hamas will try to manipulate, intimidate and spread disinformation. We were one step away from cancelling the agreement," he admitted.

According to the Israeli media, Hamas overnight sent a list of hostages they were willing to release, but Israel branded the list "unacceptable" as it did not comply with the agreement to release the women and children still in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli authorities warned Doha that if the list did not change by 7 a.m. the operation in the Palestinian enclave would resume. 

Tensions continued to rise after the terrorist organisation informed the Gazans to be prepared to resume fighting with Israel. Eventually Qatar pressured Hamas to change the list and Israel agreed to accept only eight women and children instead of the originally agreed ten.

The Islamist group will only release eight hostages today as two Russian-Israeli women returned home yesterday due to a side deal with Moscow, which local media say "manipulates" the terms of the agreement. In addition to the eight women and children, Hamas also announced that it would hand over the bodies of three Israelis who died in Gaza during captivity. 

However, a Hamas source told AFP that 10 Israeli hostages will be released today, two of them with Russian citizenship. "All of them are alive," says the source, who indicates that the bodies of three deceased hostages will also be returned.

Among the captives to be released today are 17-year-old Aisha Alziadna and her 18-year-old brother Bilal. Both - Israeli-born Bedouins - were kidnapped along with their 21-year-old brother Hamza and their father Yosef, who will remain held in Gaza. Also, according to CNN, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, the French-Israeli Mia Shem, kidnapped at the Nova music festival and the first hostage to appear in a Hamas propaganda video, will be released today.  

During this temporary truce, which will be a week old tomorrow, 97 civilians have been released from Hamas in Gaza, 73 of them Israelis, 23 Thais and 1 Filipino. However, according to Israeli figures, some 145 hostages, including 15 women and children, are still being held in Gaza. The Israeli authorities, for their part, have released some 210 Palestinian prisoners and minors so far.  

Despite the temporary ceasefire, Israel is determined to continue its military operation in Gaza once the truce ends. Once again, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that the IDF will resume its campaign to eliminate Hamas, something supported by the other two members of the war cabinet, Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, as well as IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi. "If anyone has any doubts, we will very soon continue the ground operation throughout Gaza," Netanyahu reiterated.  

Hamas claims responsibility for Jerusalem attack

Shortly after announcing the truce extension, two brothers, aged 38 and 30, from the South Baher neighbourhood of East Jerusalem opened fire on citizens at a bus stop at the entrance to the Israeli capital.

Three Israelis were killed in the attack: Livia Dickman, 24; Ashdod rabbinical judge Elimelech Wasserman, 73; and Hannah Ifergan, in her 60s, reports The Times of Israel. Two off-duty soldiers and an armed civilian responded to the attack and managed to eliminate the two terrorists, who years earlier were imprisoned on terror-related charges.  

Hours after the attack, which also left several wounded, Hamas claimed responsibility, saying that "the heroes of our people are mobilising to avenge the blood of martyrs". The terrorist group also called for an "escalation of resistance" and described the attackers as "martyrs of jihad".

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has expressed his rejection of the truce with Hamas, accused the terrorist group of violating the agreement with the attack. "With one hand Hamas signs a ceasefire, with the other it sends terrorists to murder Jews in Jerusalem," the far-right minister said. Ben Gvir also called to "stop making deals with the devil and return immediately to the fight".

This morning two Israeli soldiers were also lightly wounded in a terrorist attack near the West Bank settlement of Beka'ot in the northern Jordan Valley.  

These two incidents coincide with an escalation of violence in the West Bank despite the truce in Gaza. Yesterday, 8-year-old Adam Al-Ghoul and 15-year-old Basel Abu Al-Wafa, as well as two senior terrorist commanders, were killed by Israeli forces in Jenin. Hamas, which has claimed that the 15-year-old was one of its members, says the attack in Jerusalem was carried out in response to the war in Gaza and the killing of the two children in Jenin. 

Amid the truce extension and rising tension in the West Bank and Jerusalem, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has returned to Israel to monitor the temporary truce first-hand.  

Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog as well as Netanyahu, who again stressed that the war in Gaza will continue until all hostages are released and Hamas is defeated. ​

Tags:
Gaza Israel Palestine Hamas
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