From 2h ago
05.24 GMT
Truce enters final day as Israel under pressure to
extend deal
The truce
between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the
militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after it freed more
hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its 7 October attack.
The pause
that began on Friday has seen dozens of hostages freed, with more than 100
Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in return.
Agence
France-Presse also reports that attention now has turned to whether the truce
will be extended before its scheduled end early on Tuesday morning.
US
president Joe Biden said Sunday:
That’s my
goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can
continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into
those in need in Gaza.
He said he
would like the fighting to be paused for “as long as prisoners keep coming
out”.
Hamas has
signalled its willingness to extend the truce, with a source telling AFP the
group told mediators they were open to prolonging it by “two to four days”.
Israel
faces enormous pressure from the families of hostages, as well as allies, to
extend the truce to secure more releases. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said on Sunday he had spoken to Biden and would welcome extending the temporary
truce if it meant that on every additional day 10 captives would be freed.
Netanyahu
with Israeli military forces in Gaza on Sunday in the first visit to the
territory by an Israeli premier since 200
Under the
truce, 50 hostages held by the militants were to be freed over four days in
exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. A built-in mechanism extends it if at
least 10 Israeli captives are released each extra day
The third
group of hostages released on Sunday included a four-year-old American citizen
named Abigail whose parents were both murdered in the Hamas attacks.
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