Hamas wants to extend 4-day pause in fighting in exchange for releasing additional Israeli hostages

The Hamas terror organization wants to extend the original agreement for a four-day pause in fighting by several additional days, the group stated on Sunday.

“We strive to extend the ceasefire after the end of the 4-day period, by having a serious discussion to increase the number of abductees to be released as agreed upon in the humanitarian ceasefire agreement,” Hamas said in a statement.

The original deal stipulated that, in exchange for Israel agreeing to four days of truce and the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners, Hamas would free 50 Israeli hostages. If both sides were interested in extending the four-day pause in fighting, Hamas would need to release at least 10 hostages for each additional day of the truce.

The Israeli war cabinet approved an extension of the deal to a maximum of 10 days (representing 100 additional hostages) and, in exchange, agreed to release 300 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli officials estimate that Hamas is holding at least 20 additional hostages who fall under the category defined under the initial agreement, i.e. children, mothers and elderly women, according to Army Radio on Monday morning. Hamas allegedly only located some of them during the last days of the pause in fighting.

These estimates mean that the pause in fighting could be extended by at least two more days, with Israel reportedly demanding that Hamas agrees ahead of time to extend the ceasefire by two days instead of negotiating day to day.

The report noted that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group handed over to Hamas most of the Israeli children, mothers and elderly women that it was holding, but that it would keep some hostages.

The original ceasefire agreement is set to end with today’s release of 11 more Israeli hostages. Israeli officials have repeatedly stressed that the IDF is ready to continue the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

“We are continuing until the end – until victory. Nothing will stop us, and we are convinced that we have the force, the strength, the will and the determination to achieve all of our goals for the war, and this is what we will do,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday during a visit inside the Gaza Strip.