Hamas Flags Up To 40 More Freed Hostages

Hamas has agreed to consider extending the pause in hostilities in the war with Israel, giving fresh hope to the families of the up to 180 hostages still being held somewhere below the Gaza battlefield.

Militants released 17 hostages, including a four-year-old American girl Avigail Idan whose parents were murdered during Hamas’s bloody October 7 rampage.

One of eight child hostages, released in the latest wave, ­Avigail was captured hiding in the house of neighbour Hagar Brodutch and her three children, who were also all snatched by Hamas but later released.

Three Thai nationals were also freed, as was Russian dual national Roni Krivoi, the first adult male to be released, with Hamas citing President Vladmir Putin’s support for Palestine’s cause.

About a dozen more hostages were being lined up to be freed on Tuesday. But as the four-day truce that had allowed the more than 50 hostages to be freed drew to a close, Hamas agreed to an extension plan which included releasing 10 hostages a day for every additional day of truce.

It was the first time the militants had agreed to extend the deal which was also to include the release of Palestinians being held in Israeli detention.

“Hamas informed the mediators that the resistance movements were willing to extend the current truce by two to four days,” a source close to Hamas said, adding 20 to 40 more hostages could be released in that time.

Negotiators between Hamas and Israel, including Qatar, the US and Egypt, welcomed the potential ceasefire extension.

But Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Hamas could not seek to extend the truce without finding the 40 women and children allegedly being held by civilians, gangs and other Islamist groups including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. PIJ has ­already bragged that it is holding hostages of its own.

“We don’t yet have any clear information how many they can find because … one of the purposes (of the pause) is they (Hamas) will have time to search for the rest of the missing people,” the Qatari Prime Minister said.

There has been a hint of where some of the remaining hostages could be held.

The Israel Defence Forces on Sunday sent out mass text messages to residents in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis saying they knew they were there.

“The army will neutralise anyone who has kidnapped hostages,” the SMS warned.

Israel meanwhile held out a carrot, confirming it had a list of another 150 names of Palestinians, beyond those already earmarked for release, should a truce extension and prisoner swap deal occur.

US President Joe Biden said the hostages had to be brought home as he dispatched his Secretary of State Antony Blinken toIsrael as part of truce talks.

“That’s our goal – to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow,” he said. “Nothing is guaranteed and nothing is being taken for granted but the proof that this is working – and worth pursuing further – is in every smile, and be grateful of the tears we see on the faces of those families who are finally getting back together again.”

Mr Biden said he also wanted to see “a surge” in aid into Gaza for the Palestinian civilians trapped in atrocious conditions in the war zone.

The United Nations said the 160 to 200 trucks it was already seeing going into Gaza was “hardly enough”.

It estimated that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting, which is reported to have killed 14,000 Palestinian civilians including an unspecified number of militants.

Among those militants, Hamas confirmed its top northern brigade commander Ahmed al-Ghandour and four other senior leaders are dead.