Efforts To Extend Gaza Truce As More Hostages To Be Released
Israeli hostages released from Gaza. (Source: Israel Prime Minister Office)
Following the extension of the Gaza truce through Wednesday, international mediators are at work to extend it once more.
Both Israel and Hamas agreed from the start that the truce, initially of four days, could be extended by one day for each 10 Israeli hostages released. The first two-day extension, from Tuesday through Wednesday, was agreed with the mediation of Qatar, US, and Egyptian officials.
The truce is also instrumental to get more humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, where conditions for displaced civilians remain dire. On Tuesday, the first day of the extension, 12 hostages – nine women, two Thai nationals, and a teenager – were released by Hamas, whilst Israel released a further 30 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated, “The Government of Israel embraces the 12 hostages – ten of our citizens and two Thai nationals – who returned to Israeli territory today (Tuesday, 28 November 2023). Their families have been updated by the responsible officials that they have returned to the country.”
Difficult Negotiations
More hostages are set to be released on Wednesday, in exchange for Palestinians kept in Israeli prisons – many under the controversial administrative detention system, where people can be held with no trial or known charges. The more time passes, however, the more complicated extending the truce becomes.
While Hamas still holds an estimated 150 hostages from its 7 October attack, enough to potentially keep a truce going for two further weeks if 10 are released each day, the terms of future exchanges could be quite different.
So far, the exchange has concerned women and minors among captives on both sides. However, as more women and children are released, the remaining hostages will be mostly men, some of them Israeli soldiers. For their release, Hamas is likely to demand the release of convicted Palestinian men as opposed to that of women and teenagers.
While the Israeli government is facing huge pressures to bring home as many hostages as possible, and reluctant to resume attacks on the Gaza Strip while the release of further hostages is a possibility, whether they will agree to new conditions remains to be seen.
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