Adding to the rising requests for an extension, France’s foreign minister stated on Sunday that his country hopes the four-day truce in the Israel-Hamas battle lasts until the Palestinian militant group releases all of its hostages.
After nearly seven weeks of fighting that was sparked by the group’s historic October 7 attack on Israel, Hamas on Friday declared a ceasefire and on Sunday released a third group of hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees.
However, Israel has promised to carry out its declared goal of destroying Hamas in the battle after the cease-fire, which started on Friday, ends.
US President Joe Biden is among those urging for an extension of the truce, with Hamas holding many other hostages and as Gaza suffers a dire humanitarian crisis following weeks of Israeli bombardment and siege.
“We demand the release of our hostages and all the hostages. It would be good, helpful and necessary for the truce to be extended to this end,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told BFMTV.
No French captives have been freed yet, but Colonna said she had “good hope” that would change.
“There are lists drawn up during the negotiations through Qatar,” but “Hamas makes its choices within these lists,” she said.
According to Israeli officials, on October 7, in the bloodiest attack in the nation’s history, Hamas militants killed over 1,200 persons, predominantly civilians, and captured about 240 hostages.
According to the Hamas authorities in Gaza, the catastrophic Israeli military response has killed about 15,000 people, thousands of them youngsters, mostly civilians.
According to a Hamas-affiliated source, the Islamist organization was open to extending the present truce over its original expiration date by up to four days.
