Following the extension of the Gaza cease-fire, more hostages will be freed.
The truce between Israel and Hamas entered a fifth day today after both sides agreed to extend the pause in fighting to allow for the release of more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. CIA Director William Burns is in Qatar for talks aimed at a further extension and a broader hostage deal.
Hamas and Israel’s military accused each other of the first limited violations of the truce in northern Gaza this morning. Aid has continued to flow into the besieged Gaza Strip under protection of the cease-fire, including much-needed fuel, but the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave “remains catastrophic,” a senior United Nations official warned.
The U.S. says it has urged Israel that any offensive in southern Gaza after the truce must be designed to avoid “significant further displacement” of Palestinian civilians, who have been suffering for weeks in the south as supplies of food, water and medicine run low amid Israeli bombardment while the military campaign against Hamas was centered on the north.
