A truce between Israel and Hamas enters its sixth day Wednesday after additional hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, with mediators pushing for a “sustainable” ceasefire. After a 48-hour extension of an initial four-day truce, a new group of 12 hostages was freed from Gaza on Tuesday, with 30 Palestinians released by Israel.
The final 24 hours of the extended agreement will begin later on Wednesday, with one more exchange of hostages for prisoners expected, but mediator Qatar said it was hoping for a more durable arrangement.
“Our main focus right now, and our hope, is to reach a sustainable truce that will lead to further negotiations and eventually to an end… to this war,” foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari told a Doha news conference. “However, we are working with what we have. And what we have right now is the provision to the agreement that allows us to extend days as long as Hamas is able to guarantee the release of at least 10 hostages.”
That provision has allowed the two-day extension that saw 10 Israeli hostages released from Gaza overnight Tuesday, along with two Thais freed outside the scope of the agreement. An AFP journalist saw masked and armed fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad hand over hostages to Red Cross officials in Rafah, near the border with Egypt. The Israeli hostages freed were all women, including 17-year-old Mia Leimberg, who returned to Israel with her mother and aunt. The three were all abducted from kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, and the teenager was seen after her release holding her dog Bella.
There have been few direct accounts so far of the conditions faced by hostages, but the grandmother of 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi, who was released on Monday, said the boy had been held in solitary confinement for 16 days. “The days that he was alone were horrible,” Esther Yaeli told Israeli news website Walla. “Now Eitan appears very withdrawn.”
