Gaza: The Hamas says it has agreed to extend a truce with Israel in Gaza for a seventh day.
Israel’s military said earlier the truce with Hamas will be extended to allow mediators to continue work to free hostages held in Gaza.
The truce, extended from its initial four days, has brought the first respite in the bombardment of Gaza with much of the coastal territory of 2.3 million having been reduced to wasteland in response to a deadly rampage by Hamas into southern Israel on October 7.
“In light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue,” said the Israeli statement, released minutes before the temporary truce was due to expire.
Hamas, which freed 16 hostages in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday, said in a statement that the truce would continue for a seventh day.
Hamas said Israel declined to receive seven women and child hostages and the bodies of three others who the Palestinian resistance group said were killed during Israel’s bombardment of the enclave in exchange for a temporary truce extension on Thursday.
UN chief Antonio Guterres says that while the temporary Israel-Hamas truce has enabled the delivery of more aid into Gaza, its volume still remains “completely inadequate” to meet the needs of over two million people in the Palestinian enclave.
