Pressure Mounts for Truce Extension

Israel faces a dilemma over how long it allows the pause in its war against Hamas to allow for the hostage-prisoner swaps before fighting continues.

The longer the ceasefire goes on the more international pressure could build on Israel for a permanent truce to prevent further civilian casualties in Gaza.

Each day of the pause also gives Hamas time to strengthen its military position, Israeli officials and security analysts said, potentially undermining Israel’s goal of eliminating the terrorist group.

Fourteen Israelis and three Thai migrant workers were freed overnight on Sunday and left the Gaza Strip.

Also among those freed was four-year-old US-Israeli citizen Avigail Idan, whose parents were killed in the October 7 massacre.

In accordance with a deal struck last week between Hamas and Israel, Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Qatari and Egyptian leaders are now leading talks to extend the four-day pause in fighting beyond Tuesday AEDT in an effort to ­secure the release of more hostages and bring further relief to Palestinians in shattered Gaza.

The central issue to resolve, Egyptian officials said, was providing a list of hostages Hamas would release in subsequent days.

For Hamas, every concession – and every extension – could be ­essential to ensuring its survival.

Israel has vowed to resume its military campaign to destroy Hamas. “We are going until the end – until victory. Nothing will stop us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to soldiers inside Gaza on Sunday.

As a part of the initial deal, Hamas committed to releasing 50 hostages, in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of three Palestinian prisoners for every hostage freed. Before the releases, Hamas and other groups in Gaza were holding up to 100 women and children, Israeli officials said.

Israel agreed, as a part of that deal, to pause fighting for further days in exchange for the release of additional batches of 10 women and children. That means Hamas can draw out the ceasefire for up to nine days.

Former Israeli national security adviser Yaakov Amidror said that while Israel expected Hamas to try to maximise the current pause in fighting, neither the government nor the Israeli public would be ­deterred from restarting the battle.

“I don’t see in Israel one serious voice saying after 10 days, we should stop and not continue the war,” Mr Amidror said.

Within Israel, the families and their supporters have become a powerful political force, as the mass gathering on Saturday night demonstrated. Calls for the return of all the hostages, including men, are growing stronger.

“Who decided that men are at the bottom of the list for release?” said Shoval Gal, whose boyfriend, Ofir Tzarfati, was taken hostage at the Nova music festival, as she ­addressed the rally.

Each day since the deal was agreed, relatives anxiously wait to learn whether their loved ones are on a list of hostages drawn up by Hamas for release the next day.

The logic behind the order isn’t clear, but so far, hostages have largely been released with other members of their community, suggesting they were held together.

Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said the release of physically healthy hostages by Hamas was “staged” and “orchestrated”. “Let’s not forget that Hamas chose these people to be released,” he said.

“I think that it is no coincidence that the people, the hostages, that Hamas has decided to let out first are the people who perhaps were treated … in the least horrible way in Hamas captivity.

“As time goes by … I’m sure that we will hear horrible stories. There are men and older persons. They’re adults.

“I’m sure that what they will say and what they will ­expose about Hamas brutality will be a totally different story than what we’re seeing now.”

Nimrod Novik, a former senior adviser to late Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, said Israel may face another fork in the road over whether to free men too if it is able to extend the current deal to the full nine days. But, ultimately, he said Israel will have no choice but to return to fighting.

“The entire population of southern Israel is displaced and can’t go back until this mission is accomplished,” he said.

“No government will be able to face the public and say sorry we were forced to stop.”

Most of the Israelis released on Sunday were from the Kfar Aza kibbutz. Members of the community gathered at a hotel outside Tel Aviv where they were evacuated after the attack, and watched the release of the hostages on a large screen.

“The healing process for our community will only start when all the kidnapped people return,” said Maor Moravia, a member of the kibbutz.