© Reuters. A helicopter carrying hostages launched amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel arrives at Sheba Medical Middle in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv district, Israel, December 1, 2023. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Mohammad Salem and Humeyra Pamuk
GAZA/TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Negotiators labored feverishly on Friday to resume the pause in combating between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as a senior Israeli official reiterated plans to renew the warfare except the Palestinian militant group agreed to launch extra hostages.
After two last-minute extensions, the enemies marked on Thursday the seventh day of a Qatari-mediated truce with the trade of eight hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners in addition to the infusion of extra humanitarian assist into the shattered Gaza Strip.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators, who succeeded in attaining the sooner offers, had been working to barter an extra truce of two days, Egypt’s official state media company mentioned.
Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mentioned Israel was open to persevering with the ceasefire if Hamas dedicated to additional hostage releases. Israel had beforehand set the discharge of 10 hostages a day because the minimal it will settle for to pause its assault.
“We’re ready for all possibilities…. Without that, we’re going back to the combat,” he mentioned on CNN.
Earlier than the prior truce was resulting from expire early on Thursday, Hamas and its ally, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, put their fighters on alert for a resumption of hostilities.
Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which guidelines Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 folks and took 240 hostages.
Israel retaliated with intense bombardment and a floor invasion. Palestinian well being authorities deemed dependable by the United Nations say greater than 15,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed.
When the ceasefire first got here into impact per week in the past, Israel was making ready to show the main focus of its operation to southern Gaza after its relentless seven-week assault to the north.
BROTHER, SISTER TEENS RELEASED
Mediators confronted a frightening problem on Friday in attaining one other truce extension because the obstacles could also be higher. With fewer Israeli girls and kids left in captivity, lengthening the truce might require setting new phrases for Hamas to launch Israeli males, together with troopers.
The militant group might in flip search to have Palestinian male prisoners handed over. Thus far, three Palestinian prisoners have been freed for every Israeli hostage.
Considered one of Qatar’s lead negotiators, profession diplomat Abdullah Al Sulaiti, who helped dealer the truce by way of marathon shuttle negotiations, acknowledged in a latest Reuters interview the unsure odds of holding the weapons silent.
“At the beginning I thought achieving an agreement would be the most difficult step,” he mentioned in an article that detailed the behind-the-scenes efforts for the primary time. “I’ve discovered that sustaining the agreement itself is equally challenging.”
Thursday’s releases introduced the totals freed throughout the truce to 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Among the many newly launched had been six girls aged 21 to 40 together with one Mexican-Israeli twin nationwide and 21-year-old Mia Schem, who holds each French and Israeli citizenship.
Photographs launched by the Israeli prime minister’s workplace confirmed Schem, who was captured by Hamas together with others at an outside music pageant in southern Israel on Oct. 7, embracing her mom and brother after they had been reunited at Hatzerim army base in Israel.
The opposite two newly launched hostages had been a brother and sister, Belal and Aisha al-Ziadna, aged 18 and 17 respectively, in response to the Israeli prime minister’s workplace. They’re Bedouin Arab residents of Israel and amongst 4 members of their household taken hostage whereas they had been milking cows on a farm.
ISRAEL AGREES TO PROTECT CIVILIANS, BLINKEN SAYS
The truce has allowed some humanitarian assist into Gaza after a lot of the coastal territory of two.3 million folks was lowered to wasteland within the Israeli assault.
Extra gasoline and 56 vehicles of humanitarian provides entered Gaza on Thursday, Israel’s defence ministry and the Palestinian Crimson Crescent Society mentioned.
However deliveries of meals, water, medical provides and gasoline stay far under what is required, assist employees say.
At an emergency assembly in Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday urged U.N. officers and worldwide teams to stress Israel to permit extra assist into the beleaguered enclave, in response to delegates.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Israel throughout his third go to to the Center East for the reason that warfare started, agreed that the circulation of assist into Gaza was not ample.
Blinken mentioned he informed Netanyahu that Israel can’t repeat in south Gaza the large civilian casualties and displacement of residents it inflicted within the north.
“We discussed the details of Israel’s ongoing planning and I underscored the imperative for the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale that we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,” Blinken informed reporters in Tel Aviv.
“And the Israeli Government agreed with that approach,” he mentioned. This would come with concrete measures to keep away from damaging essential infrastructure reminiscent of hospitals and water services and clearly designating protected zones, he mentioned.
