The White House has welcomed the news of a two-day extension to the current truce in Gaza.
U.S National Security Council Spokesman, John Kirby, noted that, “In order to extend the pause, Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children over the next two days.”
“We hope to see the pauses extended further and that would depend on Hamas releasing more hostages,” he added.
Kirby defended the U.S’s diplomatic approach to the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying that it is getting aid into the Gaza Strip and Americans out.
Asked if the U.S would begin conditioning military aid in order to pressure Israel into limit civilian casualties during its bombing of Gaza, Kirby answered, “We will continue to urge the Israelis, as they conduct military operations, to do so with the utmost care for innocent civilian life.”
International pressure for an extension of the ceasefire had been intense, with the US, the United Nations and the European Union’s most senior diplomats all calling on Israel not to restart its offensive in Gaza when the current truce expires on Tuesday morning.
Kirby said earlier on Monday that the U.S hoped for an extension but that “the onus is going to be on Hamas to be able to come up with those 10 hostages per day.”
Kirby said the President, Joe Biden, was personally involved with Israel and Qatar, the main mediators.
Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that the two-day extension of the truce between Israel and Hamas will not go into effect until the hostages set to be released on Monday are freed.
Regev confirmed that the truce extension had been reached and under the agreement, Hamas would release 10 hostages each day.
“For every 10 hostages released, we’re willing to give an extension of another day, and if Hamas will release Israeli hostages as agreed we will extend — that’s the bottom line,” Regev said.
Regev said he believes the hostages released over the next two days would be women and children.
The senior adviser also credited U.S President Joe Biden for helping arrange the parameters of the deal.
“These were negotiated with the help of President Biden and we thank him for putting his effort and his office behind these arrangements,” he said.
“I don’t think we would have reached the deal without his input,” he added.
Guterres Commends Truce Extension
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres labelled the truce extension “a glimpse of hope and humanity in darkness of war.”
Speaking to reporters, Guterres said that he hoped the extension “will enable us to increase even more the humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza that are suffering so much.”
However, he noted that even with the additional two-day pause in the fighting, it “will be impossible” to meet the needs of Palestinians in the enclave.
He added that he was hopeful that other crossings into Gaza could be opened to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance. “I am very hopeful that this will happen,” Guterres said.
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