Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza extended by two days, mediator Qatar announces

As part of the ongoing mediation, the state of Qatar announced that an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip.

With just hours to go before the so-called "humanitarian pause" ended, both Hamas and Israel had been under international pressure to avoid a return to battle.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari told the media: "An agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip."

Hamas confirmed in a statement: "that an agreement has been reached with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt for an extension of the temporary humanitarian pause for an additional two days, with the same conditions as the previous truce."

Qatar, with the support of the United States and Egypt, has played a major role in intense negotiations to establish and prolong the truce in Gaza.

Hamas, which runs Gaza and triggered the latest round of fighting by launching a bloody cross-border raid last month, said it was drawing up a new list of hostages for release.

Meanwhile, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had informed families of the identities of hostages to be released on Monday, the last day of the initial four-day truce.

Israel has been clear that the pause is designed to allow Hamas to free more of the hostages it is holding since the October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 Israelis including many women and children, according to Israeli officials.

Israeli authorities confirmed Sunday evening that Israeli soldiers received the third batch of hostages, including 13 Israelis, three Thais, and one Israeli-Russian man, released from the Gaza Strip.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip on Sunday and said that the operation will continue until the Palestinian movement Hamas is completely defeated.

"We are here in Gaza with our heroic fighters. We are working hard to bring back our kidnapped citizens, and eventually we will bring them all back," Netanyahu had said during the outing.

"We will continue until the end — until victory. Nothing will stop us, and we are convinced that we have the will and the determination to achieve all the goals of the war, and we will do it," he had said.