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AMMAN, Jordan — As the humanitarian pause in combat in Gaza entered its fifth day Tuesday and more Israeli hostages were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, international mediators pushed for an even longer break in the conflict.
The two sides have agreed to a 48-hour extension of the initial four-day pause in exchange for the release of 20 more Israeli hostages and 60 Palestinian prisoners. Aid organizations hope the break will allow for the delivery of additional desperately needed supplies to the besieged Palestinian enclave, where the humanitarian situation is worsening as winter weather sets in.
On Tuesday evening, 12 more hostages were released, Israel said — 10 Israelis and two Thai nationals. The hostages had arrived in Israel and their families had been notified of their return, the office of the prime minister said.
In exchange, 30 Palestinian prisoners — 15 women and 15 children — would be released, said Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, a mediator in the agreement. Israel’s prison service said it had released 30 prisoners.
Top U.S. officials headed to the region to work on extending the pause into something more durable to preserve the rare break in the intense fighting that has transfixed the world and thrown the whole region into turmoil.
The United States also has made clear to Israel that when its campaign in Gaza resumes, it cannot be carried out with the same force that was seen so far in the northern half of the enclave, where more than half the buildings have been damaged or destroyed, forcing most civilians to flee southward.
A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House, said “it is extremely important” that the offensive that Israel has said will begin in southern Gaza after the pause must “be done in a way that is to a maximum extent not designed to produce significant displacement of persons.”
Sites to be protected from military operations in the south must include U.N. facilities and shelters and civilian infrastructure, the official said.
An Israeli official said they anticipated a further extension of the pause, which is set to expire early Thursday.
“After tomorrow, we expect to have another two to three days of hostage release and a humanitarian pause, after which either we resume operations in Gaza or potentially reach a follow-on agreement,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.
The official said they expected most children to be released by Wednesday night, with 20 to 30 female hostages remaining in Gaza. They said Israel is willing to keep extending the pause as long as those women continue to be released, 10 at a time. If those releases are honored, the official said, they are willing to consider Hamas proposals to expand the exchanges to include men and Israeli soldiers.
The official added that the continued releases will in no way “lead to a permanent cease-fire.”
In an effort to stave off a resumption of hostilities, CIA Director William J. Burns went to Qatar on Tuesday to meet with his Israeli counterpart in hopes of brokering a deal that would include several more days of quiet and the release of not just women and children held hostage but also men and military personnel.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, will again visit the region, where he is expected to push to maintain the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, secure the release of more hostages and emphasize the need for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Qatar — the key mediator in the Israel-Hamas negotiations to date — also said it hopes that the humanitarian pause will be further extended and that the hostage releases would go beyond women and children.
“The priority at this moment is civilian women and children,” said Al Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry. “Military men will come into discussion” after that, he said.
The United Nations, which has repeatedly expressed concern over the weeks of bombing and then ground combat in the densely populated Gaza Strip, also called for a full humanitarian cease-fire rather than a pause.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains catastrophic and requires the urgent entry of additional aid and supplies in a smooth, predictable, and continuous manner to alleviate the unbearable suffering of Palestinians in Gaza,” Tor Wennesland, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said in a statement Tuesday.
Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the pause amid small skirmishes in northern Gaza, but so far, the allegations do not appear to have threatened the agreement.
The Israel Defense Forces said that three explosive devices were detonated in the northern Gaza Strip near IDF forces and that shots were fired. A spokesman for Hamas’s military wing who uses the name Abu Obaida said that “as a result of a clear violation by the enemy of the truce agreement in northern Gaza today, there was field friction and our fighters dealt with this violation.”
The combat pause has proed some respite from the relentless bombardment of Gaza, as well as relief for Israeli and Palestinian families whose loved ones either have been held hostage in Gaza or are imprisoned in Israel. But on the ground in Gaza, the pause has been overshadowed by the apparently inevitable return to war.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since Israel declared war on Hamas after Palestinian militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Gaza residents have used the pause to try to scramble for warm clothes and supplies, visit devastated homes and recover bodies from the rubble-strewn streets.
Hanaa Moeen, a 38-year-old mother of three from Gaza City who was sheltering in an apartment with six other families in the southern city of Rafah, said the only change during the pause was that she has been able to venture outside.
“Extending the cessation of war for two days is both good and painful, because we know that the war will return, and nothing has changed,” she said. “We are now in the winter season, facing difficulty in acquiring winter clothes and the need for heating.”
The pause has given her and her family time to ponder what comes next if they can survive the war, she said. “We do not know if we have a house to return to in Gaza City.”
In the north, Nahed Afif, 55, who was sheltering at a U.N.-run school in Gaza City, said that although some aid has reached the area during the pause, supplies still fall short of the “necessities of life.”
“Our desire is not just to extend the truce but to bring an end to the war entirely. I long to sleep in my bed in my house,” he said. “Even if it’s destroyed, I’d be content to sleep in a tent next to it,” he said, adding that Israeli tanks were blocking his way home.
Watching the waves roll in from the Mediterranean, Kefah Abu Safiyya said she came with her family to the beach for some peace and quiet and “to catch our breath, even if only for a little while.”
“This very short truce proes a brief respite, but what will happen afterward is uncertain. We seek a change of atmosphere, even if it lasts only for a few seconds,” she said. “We don’t know if we will live or become part of those being killed.”
Released hostages have described deteriorating conditions during their weeks of captivity, with thinning food rations and heavy bombing. Ronit Lubetzky, director of the Ichilov Hospital children’s department, said in a news briefing Tuesday that the nine children the hospital had received had to undergo “complex” medical assessments and had suffered from poor nutrition during their captivity.
Most Palestinians released or slated for release have not been convicted of any crime and were awaiting trial, according to Jessica Montell, the executive director of the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, although she added that Hamas should have released hostages “unconditionally.”
Morris reported from Berlin. Mellen reported from Washington. Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem; Susannah George in Doha, Qatar; Sarah Dadouch in Beirut; Paul Schemm in London; and John Hudson and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
