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Israel’s government receives list of hostages expected to be released on Tuesday.
An Israel-Hamas truce in the Gaza Strip stretched into a fifth day on Tuesday as the two sides completed the release of Israeli hostages and detained Palestinians and looked poised to free more as the pause in fighting was extended by two days.
Hamas took about 240 hostages during an Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, prompting Israel to retaliate by bombing the coastal enclave and launching a ground offensive in its north.
Monday’s releases bring to 51 the number of Israelis freed under the truce, along with 19 hostages of other nationalities. So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons.
The White House and Qatari negotiators said on Monday the original four-day pause in fighting, due to expire on Tuesday morning, had been extended for two more days.
Israel has not commented on any agreement to extend the truce but, in what may be an implicit confirmation, the Israeli prime minister’s office said the government approved the addition of 50 female detainees to its list of Palestinians for potential release if additional Israeli hostages are freed.
Hamas said it had sought to revise terms under which it would free hostages beyond the women and children it has already released.
“We hope the Occupation (Israel) abides (by the agreement) in the next two days because we are seeking a new agreement, besides women and children, whereby other categories that we have that we can swap,” Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya told Al Jazeera late on Monday.
That, he said, would entail “going towards an additional time period to continue swapping people at this stage.”
Among hostages Hamas still holds are fathers and husbands of those it has freed in recent days.
Israel previously said it would extend the truce by one day for every 10 more hostages released, providing some respite from the war.
Israel-Hamas truce extended by 2 days
The truce between Israel and Hamas has been extended by two days, just as it was set to expire. Eleven more hostages held by Hamas, and 33 more Palestinians imprisoned by Israel were released on Day 4 of the ceasefire.
But Israel says it remains committed to crushing Hamas’s military capabilities and ending its 16-year rule over Gaza after its Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel.
Israel’s government has received a list of hostages who are expected to be released on Tuesday, Israel’s Army Radio reported, citing the Israeli prime minister’s office.
The Axios news website reported the list contained 10 hostages. There was no immediate comment from the prime minister’s office.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
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