Gaza truce: Israel and Hamas close to extending deal

After a successful third day of hostage-prisoner exchanges, the jihadist group Hamas revealed that it is in talks with mediators to extend the truce in Gaza. For his part, the Israeli president remarked that he will continue “until the end” with his three objectives in the conflict. Seven weeks after the outbreak of the conflict, the Israeli army and the Hamas group agreed last Friday to begin a period of truce, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Tomorrow will be the last day stipulated in the agreement, and the senior officials took different positions. In a speech released on Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu, president of Israel, assured that they will fulfill their objectives in the war. “We continued until the end, until the victory. Nothing will stop us. We have three objectives in this war: to eliminate Hamas, to bring back all our hostages, and to ensure that Gaza does not again become a threat to Israel,” he said. On the Hamas side, they wrote in a public message that they are holding talks to extend the truce. “The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas is attempting to extend the truce after the end of the four-day period, making a serious attempt to increase the number of detainees released, as set out in the humanitarian truce agreement,” they said. Although there is still no official decision from the Israeli government, in a telephone conversation with Joe Biden – president of the United States – during the last few hours, Netanyahu was willing to continue with the truce in exchange for the release of more hostages.

Original source in Spanish