Israel-Hamas war: ceasefire extended for a day amid last-minute mediation efforts

Israel’s military said early on Thursday that a truce with Hamas would continue into a seventh day, minutes before it was due to expire, as mediators continued to work towards further exchanges of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas, which freed 16 hostages in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday night, confirmed that the ceasefire would be extended into a seventh day.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the ceasefire would continue “in light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing hostages, and subject to the terms of the agreement”.

The six-day halt to fighting in Gaza had been set to end at 7am local time (5am GMT) on Thursday. Qatar, which has been acting as a mediator, confirmed the one-day extension to the ceasefire.

As the deadline loomed, Hamas claimed early on Thursday that Israel had refused to receive a further seven women and children and the bodies of three other hostages in exchange for extending the truce. Both sides had said they were ready to resume fighting, with Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades telling its forces to “maintain high combat readiness in the last hours of the truce”.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken had arrived in Israel for talks on Wednesday night, amid international pressure for both sides to extend the pause to allow more hostage releases and additional aid into devastated Gaza. The directors of the CIA and the Mossad, William Burns and David Barnea, spent a second day in Doha in talks with the Qatari government aimed at stretching the truce further. The Egyptian spy chief, Abbas Kamel, was also reported to be taking part in the discussions.

Israel’s war cabinet also met late on Wednesday, media reports said.

On Wednesday night, before the extension was announced, Israeli military radio said 10 Israelis and four Thais had been handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza. The group included dual citizens with US, German and German nationality, Qatar said. The IDF said two hostages with Russian citizenship had crossed into Egypt.

Thirty Palestinian prisoners were later freed, including well-known activist Ahed Tamimi. “During the night, 30 male and female security prisoners were released from a number of prison facilities,” Israeli prison authorities said in a statement.

The two Russian-Israeli hostages released were Yelena Trupanob, 50, and her mother, Irena Tati, a doctor aged 73. Hamas said they had been released outside the framework of the Hamas-Israeli hostage deal, as a “tribute” to Vladimir Putin. The other 10 Israeli hostages comprised five women and five children.

Joe Biden said the released hostages included an Israeli-American woman, Liat Beinin, 49, and said he had spoken to her mother and father.

“They’re very appreciative and things are moving well,” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “She’ll soon be home with her three children,” he said.

Hamas informed Israeli authorities that three of the hostages had been killed earlier in Israeli bombing of Gaza, naming them as Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two sons: four-year-old Ariel and Kfir, a 10-month-old baby. The IDF said it was investigating the claim about the Bibas family and accused Hamas of behaving in a “cruel and inhuman manner”. There was no independent verification of the claim and previous similar claims have proved unfounded.

Israel said on Wednesday that about 160 hostages were still held in Gaza. Of those, 126 are men and 35 are women. Four are under the age of 18, and 10 over the age of 75.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear he had no intention of considering a more lasting ceasefire. “After this phase of returning our abductees is exhausted, will Israel return to fighting? So my answer is an unequivocal yes,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday. “There is no way we are not going back to fighting until the end.”

The IDF also said its chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, had “approved the attack plans for the continuation of the campaign”, showing him inspecting maps with his commanders. “We know what needs to be done, and are ready for the next step,” Halevi said.