Israel-Hamas truce nears deadline, Blinken seeks extension

A truce between Israel and Hamas was set to expire on Thursday morning as time ran down on international efforts to extend a six-day pause in fighting and an exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv early on Thursday, his third trip to the region since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and was set to meet Israeli leaders to discuss extending the temporary truce and boosting humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Looking at the next couple of days, we’ll be focused on … doing what we can to extend the pause so that we continue to get more hostages out and more humanitarian assistance in,” Blinken said at a stop in Brussels.

Citing Israeli officials, Israeli media reported the military would resume attacks on Gaza at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) if the government did not receive a list of hostages to be released that met its criteria by that time.

Israel, according to the reports, is demanding at least 10 hostages be released on Thursday, with women and children prioritised.

Hamas’ armed wing told its fighters in the Gaza Strip to be ready to resume battles with Israel if the temporary truce is not renewed.

“The Al-Qassam Brigades asks its active forces to maintain high combat readiness in the last hours of the truce,” the group 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.

Two Palestinian officials earlier told Reuters that talks were continuing over a possible extension of the truce, but no agreement had yet been reached.

A Palestinian official said negotiators were hammering out whether Israeli men would be released on different terms than the exchange of three Palestinian detainees for each Israeli hostage that has applied to women and children.

Hamas released 16 more hostages on Wednesday, the final day of a two-day extension to the truce. Israel’s prison service said it released 30 more Palestinians from its jails in a sixth round of swaps. The exchanges are a core component of the arrangement, which was initially set at four days.

The six-day truce has brought the first respite to Gaza in seven weeks. During that time, Israel bombarded the territory in response to a rampage by Hamas on Oct. 7, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.

Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza. Health authorities in Gaza say Israel’s bombardment has so far killed more than 15,000 Palestinians.