Israel and Hamas will stop fighting for two more days to help people, a mediator from Qatar said on Monday, as the first four-day ceasefire in Gaza was about to end.
As part of the ongoing mediation, the State of Qatar announced that an agreement had been reached to extend the humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for two more days. Al Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry, said this on X.
While the humanitarian pause was going on and in the weeks before it, Qatar, with the help of the US and Egypt, was in intense talks to set up and extend the ceasefire in Gaza, which mediators said was meant to be grown and expanded.
The news came on the last day of a four-day ceasefire between the warring sides, as they were getting ready for the fourth exchange of militant-held hostages for Israeli prisoners.
Four days of peace were broken when Hamas freed 17 more hostages on Sunday. These were 14 Israelis and 3 Thais. Israel, in turn, freed 39 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has said that the ceasefire will last longer for every 10 hostages that are freed. Hamas also says it wants the ceasefire to last longer. More fuel and supplies are being sent to Gaza because of the agreement, but aid groups say that it is still not enough to meet the needs of the 2.3 million Palestinians who are living under Israeli siege and bombardment.
The Health Ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas and doesn’t tell the difference between civilians and combatants, says that more than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war started. About two thirds of them were women and children.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has said that he plans to keep up the military campaign even after the ceasefire ends. About 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the first Hamas incursion. At least 77 Israeli soldiers have also died in the ground offensive.
