Palestine war: Israel, Hamas truce expires without extension announced; check details

The seven-day truce began on November 24 and was extended twice. The truce had allowed dozens of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered enclave. 

In a recent development, a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas militants that was due to end at 7 am (0500 GMT) on Friday has expired, with neither side announcing a deal to extend it. It is reportedly said that the truce ended an hour before the expected deadline. Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza and Hamas-affiliated media reported sounds of explosions and gunfire in the north of the Palestinian enclave.Hamas violated the operational pause, and in addition, fired toward Israeli territory.

The Israeli military said that sirens warning of rockets sounded again in Israeli areas near Gaza just minutes before the deadline. There was no immediate comment from Hamas or claim of responsibility for the launches.

The seven-day truce began on November 24 and was extended twice. The truce had allowed dozens of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered enclave. 

Meanwhile, Qatar and Egypt have been making intensive efforts to extend the truce following the exchange on Thursday of the latest batch of eight hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners. Earlier, Israel had set the release of 10 hostages a day as the minimum it would accept to pause its ground assault and bombardment.

"We're ready for all possibilities.... Without that, we're going back to the combat," Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said.

It can be seen that Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas in response to the October 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages. Israel retaliated with severe bombardment and a ground invasion.