Palestine’s Hamas wants humanitarian Truce extension with Israel, U.S President Joe Biden backs it
Militancy group Hamas wants an extension of the four-day truce previously agreed upon by Israel and its representatives. U.S. President Joe Biden has also backed the truce extension. At the same time, Israel has showcased a willingness for more prisoner swaps.
Palestine’s militancy group, Hamas has expressed its willingness to extend the temporary humanitarian truce with Israel. The seven weeks-long violence recently came to a temporary halt as Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day humanitarian truce which included the exchange of prisoners and captives from both sides.
Egypt and Qatar played an important role in mediating the humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas. Hamas launched a massive attack on Israel on October 7 that killed thousands of innocent civilians. Gruesome pictures and videos came from Israel's border areas and Palestine as the Jewish people were brutally attacked and tortured leaving all humanity in disturbance.
Hamas militants tortured and killed hundreds of Israeli families in a matter of days and released the footage angering the world. In response, Israel destroyed the Gaza Strip which houses a majority of the Hamas militias. Since then, Israeli Armed Forces and Hamas have engaged in constant fighting which has resulted in the deaths of at least 15,000 in Gaza.
A four-day temporary truce brought respite on both sides especially Hamas whose war resources have been going down. Both sides have engaged in prisoner's exchange on all the truce days. On the first day, Hamas released 25 hostages, on the second day 17 captives were left free while on the third day, 17 people were released mainly consisting of Thai people.
However, there is a snag between Israel and Hamas over the release of prisoners on the fourth day of the truce. The Qataris are working towards solving the snag and restarting the release of prisoners on both sides. An official aware of the matter said, “There is a slight issue with today’s lists. The Qataris are working with both sides to resolve it and avoid delays.”
Amidst all this, Hamas wants to extend the truce and has already publicly expressed its willingness. However, the militancy group has also kept the condition of releasing more Palestinian hostages. U.S. President Joe Biden backed the extension of the truce for the violence to stop on both sides.