Israel announced Thursday that he sent negotiators to Cairo for interviews, seeking to extend a first phase of a cease-fire due to the expiration of two days, in order to guarantee the release of more hostages while delaying any final agreement on the future of Gaza.
The announcement reached after Hamas presented four hostage bodies, the last which should be released under the terms of the first phase of six weeks of the ceasefire that started on January 19. The talks have not yet started on a second phase which would ultimately lead to the war.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Gideon Saar, told journalists in Jerusalem that the delegation would go to Egypt to see if there was common ground to negotiate an extension to the truce.
“We said that we were ready to extend the frame in return to release more hostages. If possible, we will.”
Two government representatives told Reuters that Israel was trying to extend the initial phase, Hamas releasing three hostages each week in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.
The teams at war did not explain what would happen beyond Saturday if the first phase of the ceasefire expired without agreement. Egypt and Qatar mediate between Israel and Hamas, with the support of the United States.
The initial phase of the ceasefire included the transfer of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detained in Israeli prisons. The fighting was interrupted and the Israeli troops withdrew from certain positions in Gaza.
Less than half of the remaining hostages that would be alive
Discussions on the second phase, intended to guarantee the release of remaining hostages and the total withdrawal of Israeli Gaza forces, were to start this month earlier.
The Israeli government faces public pressure to stick to the ceasefire to release the remaining hostages, while some within the right-wing government wish to return to war to achieve their objective of eradicating Hamas.
Israel said three of the four hostages, the bodies of which had been handed over during the night, had been murdered in captivity, and the fourth had been killed the day they were captured during the Hamas raid which precipitated the war.
Israeli officials and Hamas claim that the last dead end on the exchange of prisoners and hostage bodies was resolved by Egyptian mediators. The resolution in the Gaza ceasefire agreement occurred the same day as the funeral of the young Bibas family after the transfer of their bodies last week.
The unpleasant state of the hostages delivered in recent weeks, some of which seemed emaciated and others, Israel said, have been murdered by their captors, including a baby, intensified Israeli public anger, a potentially impacting impact to extend the truce.
Hamas said Thursday that it was ready to start talks during the second phase and that the only way the remaining hostages in Gaza would be released is commitment to the ceasefire.
Israeli authorities believe that less than half of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza are still alive.
Israeli troops ordered to stay in the strategic corridor
The Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen told the public broadcaster Kan that Israel had demanded that the soldiers remain in the corridor of Philadelphi, which manages the length of the southern border of Gaza with Egypt.
Israeli troops should start to withdraw from the border area of Gaza-Egypt on Saturday, when the first phase of the ceasefire should end.
Cohen said that Israel was in a stronger position to negotiate now that on the eve of the ceasefire because he has full support from the American administration of President Donald Trump, who began to ship heavy bombs.
The last four hostage bodies of the first phase of the agreement were presented in exchange for 643 Palestinians held by Israeli forces in Gaza or imprisoned in Israel. The bodies were returned without a public exposure of the coffins before the crowd in Gaza, after such displays were angry Israel.
President Isaac Herzog in a position on X confirmed that the bodies were those of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlom Mantzur, all removed during the attack on October 7, 2023 of their Kibbutz houses near Gaza.
Hamas has taken 251 hostages and killed around 1,200 people in its raid on the Southern Israeli communities, according to Israel. About half of the hostages were released during the previous preceding truce of the war in November 2023, and others were recovered alive or dead during the war.
More than 48,000 Palestinians were killed in the assault of Israel against Gaza, according to the Palestinian authorities. The war wasted the crowded coastal enclave and moved the majority of its population several times.
Meanwhile, in northern Israel, Israeli police said that a driver struck his car in people with a road bus stop, injuring at least eight Thursday in what the authorities believe they are a militant attack.
Police said that she had “neutralized” the suspect, whom they described as a 53 -year -old Palestinian from northern West Bank who lived in Israel and was married to an Israeli citizen.
The medical workers said that the boost injured at least eight people, two in serious condition, which they evacuated to the hospital.
