The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours Monday, with signs the militant group was willing to extend the pause after it freed more hostages, including a four-year-old girl orphaned by its attack.
Hamas raided Israel on October 7 in the worst attack in the country’s history, prompting devastating Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip.
As the latest group of Israeli women and children walked free late Sunday, attention turned to calls for the truce to be extended before its scheduled end at 7am on Tuesday.
“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 into those in need in Gaza,” US President Joe Biden said on Sunday.
He added he would like the fighting to be paused for “as long as prisoners keep coming out.”
“I get a sense that all the players in the region are looking for a way to end this so the hostages are all released and… Hamas is completely no longer in control of Gaza.”
Hamas has signalled its willingness to extend the truce, with a source telling AFP the group told mediators they were open to prolonging it by “two to four days”.
“The resistance believes it is possible to ensure the release of 20 to 40 Israeli prisoners” in that time, the source close to the movement said.
Hamas has released 39 Israeli hostages and Israel has freed 117 Palestinian prisoners in exchange under the terms of the agreement. A further 19 foreign nationals have also been released from Gaza under separate arrangements.
Under the truce, 50 hostages held by the militants were to be freed over four days in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. A built-in mechanism extends the truce if at least 10 Israeli captives are released each extra day.
Some hostages are believed to be held by militant groups other than Hamas, potentially complicating future releases.
Israel faces pressure from the families of hostages, as well as allies, to extend the truce to secure more releases.
“It would be good, helpful and necessary” to extend the truce until all hostages, who include French nationals, are freed, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told BFMTV on Sunday.
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, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
In response, Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas, killing nearly 15,000 people, mostly civilians and including thousands of children, according to Gaza’s Hamas government.
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.
“What a joy to see her with us. But on the other hand, what a pity that she returns to the reality of not having parents,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“She has no parents, but she has a whole nation that embraces her,” he added.
Also among those freed Sunday was an 84-year-old woman who was rushed to intensive care in critical condition “after serious neglect”, medical officials said.
Thirteen hostages were freed under the terms of the truce on Sunday in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners, who have been received by rapturous crowds waving Palestinian and Hamas flags.
Hamas separately freed three Thai nationals and a Russian-Israeli citizen, Ron Krivoy, who the group said was released “in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin” and his “support of the Palestinian cause”.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said it was reviewing a list of the next group of hostages to be released later Monday.
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 green military fatigues and surrounded by soldiers, Netanyahu vowed to free all the hostages and “eliminate Hamas”, in footage posted online by his office.
He later said he had told Biden “that at the end of the outline we return with all our strength to realise our goals: the elimination of Hamas, to ensure that Gaza will not return to what it was, and of course the release of all our abductees”.
Elsewhere in Gaza, residents picked through heaps of rubble where homes once stood searching for belongings after weeks of bombardment.
“I came to see if there was anything left, if there was anything I could salvage. We fled with nothing,” said Oussama al-Bass, inspecting the ruins of his home in Al-Zahra, south of Gaza City on Sunday.
“Everything is lost,” he said. “We’re tired. That’s enough. We can’t take it anymore.”
On the outskirts of Gaza City, families took to the road on foot to head south, pushing luggage and relatives in wheelchairs, and carrying children in their arms.
Israel has told Palestinians in Gaza to leave the north for the relative safety of the south, but it has now sent text messages to those in the southern city of Khan Yunis warning it knows hostages are being held there.
“The army will neutralise anyone who has kidnapped hostages,” the message said.
The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting.
A humanitarian mission organised by the United Arab Emirates evacuated Palestinians including injured people on stretchers by plane via Egypt’s El-Arish airport bound for Abu Dhabi early on Monday, AFP photographers witnessed.
The pause in fighting has allowed more aid to reach Palestinians struggling to survive with shortages of water, food and other essentials.
But Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on Sunday warned of “unprecedented” humanitarian needs.
“We should send 200 lorries a day continuously for at least two months,” he said.