A humanitarian pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas will extend by two days, mediator Qatar has said as an initial four-day truce in Gaza was set to expire.
"The State of Qatar announces that, as part of the ongoing mediation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in Gaza," Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said on X, formerly Twitter.
Hamas also said it had agreed a two-day extension to the truce with Qatar and Egypt, who have been facilitating indirect negotiations between the two sides. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
"An agreement has been reached with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt to extend the temporary humanitarian truce by two more days, with the same conditions as in the previous truce," a Hamas official said in a phone call with Reuters.
Over the course of the initial truce a total 50 civilian hostages, women and children, were expected to be freed by Hamas.
In exchange, 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel were to be released and humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza.
During its first three days, 39 Israeli hostages were freed by the militant group in exchange for 117 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails as part of the deal between the two sides.
Parallel negotiations
As a result of parallel negotiations led by the Gulf state, 17 Thais, one Filipino and one dual Russian-Israeli national have also been released by the Palestinian resistance group.
The figure set for release is by far the largest since Hamas stormed across Gaza's militarised border on October 7 and staged the deadliest attack in Israel's history.
Israel has said that the attack killed 1,200 people and around 240 more were taken hostage.
In response, Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 15,000 people, thousands of them children.
