Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas have expressed concern over lists of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners set to be released on Monday, the last day of an agreed four-day pause in fighting, an official briefed on the matter said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Qatari mediators were working with Israel and Hamas to resolve the issues and avoid delays.
Hamas said it wanted to extend the truce.
Israel has previously offered to accept an extra day for every 10 additional hostages released and release three times the number of Palestinian prisoners each time.
“There is a little problem with today’s lists. “The Qataris are working with both sides to resolve it and avoid delays,” said the official briefed on the matter.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip on Sunday, November 26, 2023, where he received security briefings with commanders and soldiers and visited one of the tunnels that has been revealed. Facebook/Prime Minister of Israel
Israel earlier said it had received overnight what could be the final list of hostages scheduled for release.
The list was being reviewed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, adding that it would provide more information when possible.
On Sunday, Hamas freed 17 people, including a 4-year-old Israeli-American girl, bringing to 58 the total number the terrorist group has freed since Friday.
Israel freed 39 teenage Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, bringing to 117 the total number of Palestinians released since the truce began.
A Palestinian official familiar with the truce talks said both Hamas and Israel had shown a positive attitude toward requests to extend the four-day truce, but added that “a final decision has not yet been reached.”
Palestinians walk past houses damaged by Israeli attacks during the conflict, amid a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip, November 25, 2023. REUTERS
An Israeli official told Reuters that Hamas had the responsibility of producing a new list of 10 hostages that it could release on Tuesday in exchange for an additional day of truce.
If Israel approves the list, the truce would be extended by one day, and Israel would release three times as many Palestinian prisoners as it has freed hostages.
That process would continue for a maximum of five additional days to the current truce, the official added.
Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, speaking to Lebanese broadcaster LBC, 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 taken to Gaza.
Those handed over by Hamas on Sunday included 13 Israelis, three Thais and one with Russian citizenship, and the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that it had successfully transferred them from Gaza.
‘INCONCEIVABLE’
President Biden said he hoped the truce could continue as long as the hostages were freed.
Biden said 4-year-old hostage Abigail Edan had witnessed Hamas terrorists kill her parents during their Oct. 7 attack on Israel and had been held since.
President Biden delivers a speech on the release of Gaza hostages, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on November 26, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
“What she endured is unthinkable,” Biden said at a news conference.
Netanyahu, who spoke with Biden over the weekend, said that once the truce ends “we will return in 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.”
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on Monday that the truce was an important first step, but that much more would be needed to ease the situation and find a way out of the crisis.
The Israeli army operates in the Gaza Strip during a temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in this photograph published on November 27, 2023. via REUTERS
Speaking at a Forum for the Mediterranean Union in Barcelona, Borrell also urged Israel not to “recolonize Gaza”, saying that the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza was the best guarantee of peace and security. security of Israel. .
The four-day truce agreed to last week is the first break in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages to Gaza.
In response to that attack, Israel bombed the enclave and organized a ground offensive in the north.
According to Gaza health authorities, some 14,800 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Palestinians joyfully welcomed the released prisoners in Ramallah, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Omar Abdullah Al Hajj, 17, one of the detainees released on Sunday, told Reuters he had known nothing of what was happening in the outside world.
“We were 11 people crammed into a single room where there are normally six of us. There was never enough food and they never told me how long I was going to stay,” she said.
Palestinians ride a motorcycle in front of the destroyed Islamic University building in Gaza City on November 26, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
“I cannot believe that I am free now, but my joy is incomplete because we still have our brothers who remain in prison,” said Al-Hajj, who Israel’s Justice Ministry accused of belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist group and of becoming pass as a security threat that you did not specify.
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The last three Thai hostages to be released were in good health, Thailand’s prime minister said.
Efforts to free the remaining 15 Thais will continue, the Thai Foreign Ministry said.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States are pushing for the truce to be extended, but it is unclear whether that will happen.
Clashes and recriminations have threatened to derail the existing agreement.
‘PEOPLE ARE SO DESPERATE’
Qatari diplomats are now in Gaza to monitor the entry and delivery of their country’s aid, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said.
A U.N. official participating in a humanitarian convoy to northern Gaza said Sunday that aid groups were on track to deliver the largest shipment in more than a month, and described the thin, emaciated residents who quenched their thirst so soon as the water arrived.
“People are so desperate that you can see in the eyes of the adults that they haven’t eaten,” James Elder of the UN children’s agency told Reuters by videoconference from southern Gaza after returning from the Gaza City.
Even as aid shipments flowed north, Elder said he saw hundreds of Gazans heading in the other direction, fearing a resumption of Israeli bombing if the truce is not extended.
“People are so terrified that this pause will not continue,” he said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn