An agreement has been reached to extend the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas for another two days. This was announced by Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari on Twitter.
A CNN source familiar with the negotiations said this came after U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held a phone call with Qatar's prime minister on Monday, which helped broker the initial four-day truce.
The previously announced four-day truce was due to expire on Tuesday, allowing for the release of Israeli hostages.
Hamas said it had agreed with Qatar and Egypt to extend the truce for two more days "on the same terms as previously agreed."
Senior advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister Mark Regev confirmed to CNN that an agreement to extend the truce had been reached, but it would not come into force until the hostages are released on Monday.
According to Regev, according to the agreement, Hamas will release 10 hostages a day.
"For every 10 hostages released, we are ready to give a delay for another day, and if Hamas releases the Israeli hostages in accordance with the agreement, we will extend the agreement – this is the outcome of the agreement," Regev said.
Regev noted that it is likely that women and children will be released. In this case, the hostages will be released within 20 days if the agreement is permanently extended.
On November 25, Hamas announced that it was going to suspend the process of releasing hostages, for which the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was established.
The militants complained that Israel allegedly did not comply with all the points of the agreement. The Israeli Defense Forces said that if the hostages were not handed over by midnight, the fighting would continue. In the evening, Qatar and Egypt announced that they had managed to reach an agreement with Hamas on the release of a new batch of hostages.