11/28/23 - Cease-Fire Has Been Extended

Israel and Hamas agreed to extend their cease-fire for two more days.

-A four-day cease-fire between Hamas and Israel has been extended by two days, Qatari officials announced on Monday. 

A number of sources have reported that a number of people taken hostage during Hamas' Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel and held in the Gaza Strip were released over the last few days.  

Hamas has freed 69 of the hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons. 

Israel is open to extending the cease-fire with Hamas even further, as long as the militant group can free at least 10 Israeli hostages per day. Talks are apparently underway on the Israeli side to further extend the truce. It went into effect last Friday and was set to expire Tuesday but both sides agreed to extend it by two days. 

Israel announced this morning that it has agreed to possibly release more Palestinian women from its prisons over the next two days amid an extended truce with Hamas. 

Meanwhile, the cease-fire has allowed for more aid to enter Gaza. The United States says they are sending three relief flights into Egypt to keep up the flow of humanitarian aid into the war-torn Gaza Strip.  

Some 800 trucks carrying aid have crossed into Gaza during the first days of the pause, officials said.  So far, a total of about 2,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza since Oct. 7, meaning that 40% of them had gone in in just the last four days. 

Planes today will be carrying medical aid as well as food.  

The aid will be delivered by the United Nations to civilians.