The ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas is on the verge of being extended, according to Reuters. The halt in fighting, which came into effect on Friday, and will expire on Tuesday morning, November 28th, could last for another few days. A proposed deal is being negotiated by Egyptian, Qatari, and U.S. mediators, but Israel and Hamas both have conditions.
Hamas called for a four-day extension of the ceasefire on Sunday, but Israel wants day-by-day extensions. It would agree to an extra day of truce for each additional ten Israeli hostages freed and to release three times the number of Palestinians each time. The number of additional days is capped at five, an Israeli official said.
After the October 7th massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas, and the ensuing military operation by Israel in Gaza, the warring factions agreed to a ceasefire for the first time last week. Since then, Hamas has released 39 Israeli civilians and 18 foreigners, of the more than 240 hostages they took on October 7th. Israel has freed 117 Palestinian prisoners. An Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday that the total number of hostages still held in Gaza was now 184.
As we pointed out in our Democracy Watch column, the deal, accepted by Israel under Western pressure, in wider terms can only benefit the Islamists in their war to wipe out the world’s sole Jewish state. Mick Hume wrote,
In pressing Israel hard to make concessions, the U.S. and EU have effectively helped Hamas to blackmail the Israelis and hold the hostages to ransom.
Hamas has no interest in a lasting ceasefire. Having been hammered by the Israeli Defence Forces for six weeks, the terrorists will use any four-day pause in Israeli military and surveillance operations to regroup and resupply their forces. Hamas commanders have pledged, lest we forget, to stage repeats of the October 7th antisemitic massacres.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed: “Once the truce ends, we will return with full force to achieve our goals: the elimination of Hamas; ensuring that Gaza does not return to what it was; and of course the release of all our hostages.”
Riyad al-Maliki, the foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority—which doesn’t control Gaza, but runs the West Bank—said the international community must pressure Israel to extend the ceasefire indefinitely.
