INTERNATIONAL mediators are pressing to extend a ceasefire in Gaza that has halted the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades.
The ceasefire is scheduled to expire after Monday, as Israel and Hamas prepare for a fourth exchange of Israelis held by Hamas for Palestinians held by Israel.
Israel said it would extend the ceasefire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released.
Hamas has also said it hopes to extend the four-day truce, which came into effect on Friday after several weeks of indirect negotiations mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
But Israel also says it remains committed to "crushing" Hamas's military capabilities and ending its 16-year rule in Gaza.
That would likely mean expanding its ground offensive from devastated northern Gaza to the south, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have crammed into United Nations shelters, and where dire conditions persist despite the ramping up of aid delivery under the truce.
The release of dozens of people – mostly women and children – who were among the roughly 240 captured by Hamas in its wide-ranging October 7 attack into southern Israel that ignited the war has rallied Israelis behind calls to return the rest of them.
Sixty-two hostages have been released, one was freed by Israeli forces, and two were found dead inside Gaza.
Relatives of Abigail Edan, a four-year-old girl and dual Israeli-American citizen who was released Sunday, said in a statement: “We can get all hostages back home. We have to keep pushing.”
Mass marches and demonstrations in Israel
Families of the hostages have led mass marches and demonstrations accusing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring them home, and the mounting pressure could push him to extend the truce and make additional concessions to Hamas.
“At the end of the day we will return every one,” Netanyahu said of the hostages, as he donned body armour and paid a rare visit Sunday to troops inside Gaza.
“We are continuing until the end, until victory. Nothing will stop us.”
On Sunday, Hamas freed 17 more hostages, including 14 Israelis, in a third exchange under the four-day truce. In turn, Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
More than 1200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial attack. Some 77 soldiers have been killed in Israel’s ground offensive.
The pause has given some respite to Gaza’s 2.3 million people after weeks of relentless Israeli bombardment that has driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and levelled entire neighbourhoods.
