Qatar foreign ministry Spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari has announced a two-day extension to the truce in Gaza.
In a statement posted on X, Al-Ansari said, “The State of Qatar announces, as part of the ongoing mediation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas confirmed the development.
In a press release, the group said that in agreement with Qatar and Egypt, the temporary humanitarian truce has been extended in accordance with the same conditions.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office disclosed that Israeli authorities have notified the families of hostages slated to be released later on Monday, November 27, 2023.
Hamas stated that it has received list of prisoners to be released on Monday.
The group disclosed that the list includes three women, namely Yasmin Shaaban and Etaf Jaradat both from Jenin, and Nufouth Hamad from Jerusalem.
“The list also included the names of 30 children, whose names will be made public later,” the group said in a statement.
Also, the Qatari foreign ministry announced five planes of aid were being sent to Gaza.
It stated that the planes were headed to the Egyptian city of El-Arish, from where the assistance would be transferred to Gaza.
The planes are carrying 156 tonnes of aid, including food, medical items and shelter supplies.
This brings the total number of planes to 26, with a total of 879 tonnes of assistance, the ministry said.
Proposal To Ship Aid To Gaza To Be Finalized
President Nikos Christodoulides confirmed that a team of experts will fly to Qatar in the coming days to finalise a proposal put forward by the government of Cyprus to ship aid to Gaza by way of a ‘humanitarian sea corridor’ from the eastern Mediterranean island.
Following talks with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha on Monday, the President of Cyprus confirmed that the experts would visit the Gulf state imminently.
Christodoulides said, “We agreed that in the next few days a technical team from Cyprus, our team of experts who are working on the details of our proposal, will be here in order to proceed with the implementation of everything as described in the Republic of Cyprus’s proposal.”
Under the initiative, large quantities of aid will be dispatched to Gaza on vessels loaded at the port of Larnaca. Larnaca lies a mere 210 nautical miles away from Gaza.
Israeli agents would inspect the shipments both at the Cypriot port and once they were transferred onto ships.
Christodoulides said the plan could be activated as soon as conditions on the ground permit, with Cypriot experts fine-tuning arrangements since it was formally announced in early November.
The shipments would supplement the trickle of aid getting into the enclave via lorries crossing through Egypt’s Rafah checkpoint with sources describing a single shipment as the equivalent of 500 trucks of aid.
Qatar, which has played a crucial role mediating the truce in fighting is seen to be working on plans to kickstart the maritime aid corridor as soon as possible.
The EU’s most easterly member state, Cyprus has good relations with Israel and the Arab world.
Christodoulides has said the initiative highlights the strategic island’s ability to be “a bridge to the region.”
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