Mediator Qatar said on Monday a deal had been reached to extend a truce between Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza by two days, continuing a pause in seven weeks of warfare that has killed thousands and laid waste to the Palestinian enclave.

“An agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip,” a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said in a post on social media platform X.

Hamas also said it had agreed a two-day extension to the truce with Qatar and Egypt, who have been facilitating indirect negotiations between the two sides. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

“An agreement has been reached with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt to extend the temporary humanitarian truce by two more days, with the same conditions as in the previous truce,” a Hamas official said in a phone call with Reuters.

Earlier, Egyptian security sources said that Egyptian, Qatari, and US negotiators closed in on an extension of a four-day truce in Gaza that expires on Monday, amid rising international pressure to roll over a deal that has paused seven weeks of fighting.

Hamas is seeking a four-day extension while Israel wants day-by-day extensions, with negotiations continuing over which Palestinian prisoners would be freed, the sources said.

An Israeli official earlier reiterated Israel’s position that it would agree to an extra day of truce for each additional 10 hostages freed and to release three times the number of Palestinians each time. The number of additional days is capped at five, the official added.

A Palestinian official, familiar with the truce talks, said both Hamas and Israel had shown a positive attitude to requests to extend the pause in fighting, but added that “a final decision hasn’t yet been reached”.

On Sunday, Hamas freed 17 people, including a 4-year-old Israeli-American girl, bringing the total number since Friday to 58, including foreigners. Israel freed 39 teenage Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, taking the total number of Palestinians freed under the truce to 117.

Under the terms of the current deal, Hamas is due to release in total 50 Israeli women and children held hostage in Gaza, which means that 11 remained to be freed on Monday. There is no limit in the deal on the number of foreigners it can release.

Read more;

‘Immense relief’ as UN deliveries to northern Gaza ramp up

Three students of Palestinian descent shot in Vermont in suspected hate-crime

Relief and sadness for Palestinian prisoners freed in Gaza hostage deal

An Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday that the total number of hostages still held in Gaza was now 184, including 14 foreigners and 80 Israelis with dual nationality.

Both Israel and Hamas raised concerns over Monday’s lists and Qatari mediators were working with them to resolve the issues and avoid delays, an official briefed on the matter told Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it was reviewing the list of Palestinian prisoners it had received from Hamas for release on Monday and would provide further information when possible.

Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan, speaking to Lebanon’s LBC broadcaster, said the group would try to find more hostages to release and thus prolong the truce. Hamas has previously said it is not holding all the hostages who were brought to Gaza.

Once the truce ends, Netanyahu said at the weekend, “we will return with full force to achieve our goals: the elimination of Hamas; ensuring that Gaza does not return to what it was; and of course the release of all our hostages.”

DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS

Qatar, Egypt, the United States, the European Union, and Spain were all working to extend the ceasefire, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, said during a conference in Barcelona devoted to the crisis.

Al-Maliki, whose Authority runs the occupied West Bank, told the Forum for the Union of the Mediterranean that the international community must pressure Israel to extend the truce indefinitely. The death toll would double if war resumes on Tuesday, he added.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told the same conference the current truce was an important first step but that far more would be needed to alleviate the situation.

Borrell also urged Israel not to “recolonise Gaza”, saying that the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza was the best guarantee of Israel’s peace and security.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Hamas could no longer rule Gaza after hostilities end since it did not have “an agenda for peace”.