JERUSALEM (OSV News): A spokesperson for the Israeli government said that it would be open to an additional five days of truce under the current hostage-prisoner exchange agreement, the BBC reported on November 30.
On November 27, the foreign affairs ministry of Qatar said that an agreement had been reached to extend the Israel-Hamas truce for another two days. The announcement was made by a ministry spokesperson on X, formerly Twitter, on the final day of a four-day cease-fire, which began on November 24, in which some of the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The Hamas militant group agreed with Qatar and Egypt to extend the ceasefire “under the same conditions reached before,” CNN reported. According to the agreement, at least 50 Israeli hostages—civilian women and children under age 19—among the about 240 kidnapped by Hamas—were being released in batches over four days during a pause in the fighting. The release of every additional 10 hostages will result in one other day in the pause.
In the exchange, besides releasing at least 150 Palestinians, Israel also allowed fuel, medicine and other humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
On the evening of November 27, local time, the Israeli military said 11 hostages were released and were being transported by the Red Cross in Gaza. This was the fourth exchange of the original truce.
Hamas, Israel and the US had been working through ongoing issues with the November 27 list of hostages, “including ensuring children on the list are not released without their mothers or grandmothers who might also be in captivity,” CNN reported.
The first hostage group, released late on the afternoon of November 24, included 13 Israelis, as well as 10 Thai and one Filipino. Their release was followed by freeing of the first group of 39 Palestinians.
After his Angelus recitation on November 26, Pope Francis gave thanks for the temporary truce and the release of some of the hostages in Gaza. “Let us pray that all of them will be [released] as soon as possible—think about their families!— and that more humanitarian aid enters Gaza,” he said.
In an interview with Vatican News, Pierbattista Cardinal Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said, “The fact that an agreement has been reached on the release of at least some of the hostages is positive, because so far the only channel of communication has been military.”
The cardinal said, “It is clear, therefore, that negotiations and the release of hostages are the first steps to then start paths of political perspectives for Gaza after this war. This is what is needed.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA] said on November 24 that “137 trucks of goods were offloaded” at a reception point in Gaza operated by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees. “Humanitarian teams from the UN and partners will continue to ramp up humanitarian operations to meet the needs of people throughout Gaza in the coming days,” the OCHA statement said.
As the war in Gaza neared its 50th day, the destruction in the enclave is “simply unimaginable,” said Latin Patriarchate CEO, Sami El-Yousef, in a letter of reflection published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate November 20.
He noted that as of its writing, the UN had said over 11,000 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes and some 1.6 million people—almost 70 per cent of Gaza’s population—have been displaced.
