The militant organization Hamas liberated two more Israeli women on Thursday in exchange for the release of more Palestinian detainees as part of an extended ceasefire that put a stop to weeks of bloody fighting.
International organizations have demanded a long-term end to the violence, which has been caused by Hamas’s fatal strikes on Israel, which have forced Israel to launch a catastrophic operation on the Gaza Strip, as the present truce is about to expire early on Friday.
After a 24-hour extension, the fragile ceasefire persisted through its seventh day, despite a gunshot in Jerusalem that three Hamas militants claimed was their own.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to seek a longer pause that would allow further prisoner-hostage exchanges and more aid for displaced civilians in Gaza.
The Israeli military said on Thursday at least two women hostages had been returned from Gaza after being released to the Red Cross by Hamas.
More were expected to be transferred “in the next few hours”, it said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office named the two as French-Israeli dual national Mia Shem, 21, and Amit Soussana, 40.
Following the parties’ agreement to prolong the ceasefire in combat operations until Friday morning, Israel is expected to release more Palestinian captives in return.
Shortly after the ceasefire was extended, Islamist terrorists demanded a “escalation of the resistance” and took credit for a three-person shooting in Jerusalem.
At a bus stop in the western section of the city in the early hours of the morning, two shooters from occupied east Jerusalem killed three people and injured eight more before two off-duty soldiers and civilians opened fire on them and “neutralized” them, according to police.
