Israel’s military has just announced that a truce with Hamas will continue “in light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing hostages, and subject to the terms of the agreement”. In a separate statement, Hamas said that an agreement has been reached to extend the truce for a seventh day. Until the last hour, the prospect of an extension of the truce was in question, after the two sides failed to agree on the new list of Israelis to be released from Gaza. It has been reported that Hamas' armed wing told its fighters in the Gaza Strip to be ready to resume battles with Israel if a temporary truce set to expire on Thursday at 7 A.M. is not renewed.

"The Al-Qassam Brigades asks its active forces to maintain high combat readiness in the last hours of the truce," Hamas said in a statement. Fighters should "remain on such footing unless an official statement is issued confirming the extension of the truce," the statement added. Hamas announced that Israel has refused to accept seven additional hostages, women and children, and three bodies of its citizens – also women and children – in exchange for extending the ceasefire for another day, starting from Thursday morning.

According to the statement, the three bodies belong to hostages who were killed in IDF bombings in the Strip. The organization further claimed that this number represents all the hostages in its possession, among the women and children held in Gaza. According to the understandings between the terrorist organization and Israel, the ceasefire is supposed to end at 7:00 in the morning unless an extension is agreed upon. Overnight on Wednesday, the war cabinet convened to discuss the matter, but it has not been reported yet whether any agreements were reached.

Earlier, the military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, stated that its forces are maintaining readiness in case the ceasefire is not extended beyond 7:00. Mediator Qatar confirms truce extended until Friday A truce between Israel and Hamas will be extended by one day, mediating nation Qatar has confirmed, as a six-day humanitarian pause in Gaza was set to end. “Palestinian and Israeli sides reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip for an additional day under the same previous conditions, which are a ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid, within the framework of the joint mediation of the State of Qatar,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said in a statement.

 Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)