Israel and Hamas agreed Monday, Nov. 27, to extend their cease-fire in order to release hostages for another two days. White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby made the announced the fighting will pause until at least Thursday morning.
“This humanitarian pause has already brought a halt to the fighting together with the surge in humanitarian assistance,” Kirby said during a briefing Monday. “Now, in order to continue the pause, Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children over the next two days. We would, of course, hope to see the pause extended further, and that will depend upon on Hamas continuing to release hostages.”
Israel had previously agreed the truce would be extended by one day for every 10 additional hostages that Hamas agrees to release.
Despite the current cease-fire, the Israel Defense Forces repeatedly committed to eliminating Hamas and ending the terror group’s rule over Gaza.
“With regard to the hostages, we are continuing with the outline as agreed and we are also continuing with the main goal we said — to bring about the release of our hostages, to complete the elimination of Hamas and, of course, also to ensure that this threat will not repeat itself in Gaza, no matter what it was, and there will be no regime that encourages terrorism, educates for terrorism and pays for terrorism,” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Since the cease-fire began, 58 hostages have been released by Hamas in exchange for more than 100 Palestinian prisoners who were being held in Israel. One Israeli American, a 4-year-old girl named Avigail Idan, was released by Hamas over the weekend.
It’s suspected that there’s potentially eight to nine American hostages that are being held by Hamas somewhere in Gaza.
White House leaders stated their commitment to assisting in the safe return of all hostages.
“We are going to keep working for an extension to pause again,” Kirby said. “Absolutely, that’s what we want. We want to see all the hostages out, and this is the best way to get them out.”
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