A truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be extended by two days, the Palestinian group and mediator Qatar said Monday, opening the way for further releases of hostages and prisoners.

With just hours to go before the so-called “humanitarian pause” was to end early Tuesday, Hamas said that an agreement had been reached to prolong it by 48 hours under the existing terms.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli side of the extension, which was nevertheless hailed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as “a glimpse of hope and humanity in the middle of the darkness of war”.

Qatar — with the support of the United States and Egypt — has been engaged in intense negotiations to establish and prolong the truce in Gaza.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari announced that “an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip.”
 

The State of Qatar announces, as part of the ongoing mediation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip.

— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 27, 2023

Hamas, which runs Gaza and triggered the latest round of fighting by launching a bloody cross-border raid last month, said it was drawing up a new list of hostages for release.

Meanwhile, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had informed families of the identities of hostages to be released on Monday, the last day of the initial four-day truce.

Israel has been clear that the pause is designed to allow Hamas to free more of the hostages it is holding since the October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 Israelis including many women and children, according to Israeli officials.

But both sides are under pressure to build on the break in hostilities to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza, where Israel’s campaign against Hamas has left almost 15,000 dead, mostly Palestinian civilians, according to Gaza’s Hamas government.

The Qatari announcement came after US President Joe Biden, top EU envoy Josep Borrell and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg all joined a global chorus urging the parties to extend their temporary break in fighting.

As part of the truce deal, Hamas has so far released 39 Israeli hostages, including a four-year-old girl orphaned by the group’s October 7 attack, with more expected later Monday.

Public health ‘catastrophe’

Israel has freed 117 Palestinian prisoners under the terms of the agreement. 

In parallel, 19 foreign nationals have also been released by Palestinian militants.

Tearful reunions of families and hostages have brought relief from images of civilian death and suffering in the seven-week war.

“That’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief in to those in need,” Biden said Sunday.

The White House welcomed the agreement to extend the truce.

“We would of course hope to see the pause extended further, and that will depend upon Hamas continuing to release hostages,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby said that “in order to extend the pause, Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children.”

The EU’s Borrell had called for the pause to be prolonged “to make it sustainable and long lasting while working for a political solution.” 

“Nothing can justify the indiscriminate brutality Hamas unleashed against civilians,” he said. “But one horror cannot justify another horror.”

Three successive days of hostage releases have buoyed spirits in Israel, with tearful reunions weeks after Hamas militants poured across the border on October 7.

The third group of hostages released Sunday included a four-year-old American citizen called Abigail whose parents were both killed in the Hamas attacks.

Inside Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry complained that, despite the four-day pause, no fuel had been taken to generators in hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip.  

And Yahya al-Siraj, the mayor of Gaza City, complained that without fuel the territory could not pump clean water nor clear waste accumulating in the streets, warning of a potential public health “catastrophe”. 

A French warship arrived in the Egyptian town of El-Arish near the border with Gaza to serve as a hospital for wounded civilians, a port source said.

Fight ‘until victory’

Israel has faced mounting pressure to extend the pause mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, though its leaders have dismissed any suggestions of a lasting halt to the offensive.

“We continue until the end — until victory,” Netanyahu said in Gaza on Sunday, on the first visit by an Israeli premier since 2005.

His office has proposed a war budget of 30 billion shekels ($8 billion) for 90 days.

Wearing military fatigues and surrounded by soldiers, Netanyahu vowed to free all the hostages and “eliminate Hamas”, in footage posted online by his office.

In another sign of mounting international concern, UN rights experts called Monday for independent investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October 7.

Morris Tidball-Binz, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, and Alice Jill Edwards, the special rapporteur on torture, issued a joint statement stressing the need for “prompt, transparent and independent investigations”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

While there is nothing unusual in independent candidates filing nominations, most are generally non-serious contenders unless they are powerful local leaders

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Telangana Election: Get Latest News on Telangana Assembly Election along with Updates on Schedule and Result Date | Hindustan Times 

While there is nothing unusual in independent candidates filing nominations, most are generally non-serious contenders unless they are powerful local leaders 

A team of 24 seasoned “rat-hole mining” experts are involved in the manual drilling process and excavate a narrow passageway toward the trapped workers. This time-consuming task will involve removing debris and creating a safe route for the rescue operation. The workers are just 5 metres away from the rescue team.
Manual drilling operations began at the tunnel yesterday. Initial drilling efforts were conducted using a large auger machine that got stuck in the rubble on Friday, prompting authorities to look for alternative methods –  vertical drilling from above the tunnel. Approximately 40% of the required 86-metre vertical drilling has been completed.
The last bit of the stuck auger was removed by Monday evening allowing for the insertion of a steel pipe deeper into the partially constructed escape passage. The 25-tonne machine, once repaired, will push an 800-mm pipe forward as the manual drilling progresses.
Rescue officials played down concerns about the workers’ ability to navigate through the 800-millimeter diameter pipes, highlighting their prior experience working in 600-millimeter pipes. To ensure their safety, each worker will be equipped with a helmet, a uniform, a mask, and glasses.
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said the vertical drilling operation has already progressed to a depth of 36 metres.
A rain forecast and temperatures dropping to 4 degrees Celsius pose additional hurdles in the ongoing rescue operations to free 41 construction workers trapped under a collapsed tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi. 
A landline connection has been established for the trapped workers who are stuck in a 2-km built-up area, through a pipe that helps them talk to people outside. Twice a day, from 9 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 8 pm, a team of doctors stationed at the tunnel site, talk to the workers.
“We have to complete this relief and rescue operation with a lot of alertness. Nature is continuously giving us challenges in this effort. But, we are standing firm. We are making efforts round-the-clock. We have to pray for the safe evacuation of those workers and to do it as early as possible,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday.
PM Modi’s Principal Secretary PK Mishra reached the tunnel yesterday to review rescue operations. He was accompanied by Chief Secretary Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. Mr Mishra assured the rescue teams of all possible support from the central government. 
Located about 30 km from Uttarkashi and a seven-hour drive from Dehradun, the Silkyara tunnel is an integral part of the central government’s ambitious Char Dham all-weather road project.