Israel and Hamas are considering extending the truce between them, but it won’t be an easy process. The current truce, in its fourth day, has seen the release of hostages and prisoners, but there are challenges in extending the pause in fighting.
Hamas has released 58 hostages, and Israel has freed 117 Palestinian prisoners since the truce began on Friday. However, not all of the hostages brought into Gaza during the recent attack on Israel were affiliated with Hamas. This presents logistical challenges as the truce agreement requires Hamas to hand over hostages, not other militant groups. Coordinating their release and locating additional hostages may also be difficult due to degraded communications in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, involved in the negotiations, has stated that any extension of the truce depends on Hamas finding more hostages. He also emphasized that one of the purposes of the truce was for Hamas to “search for the rest of the missing people.”
Extending the truce in exchange for the release of more hostages could also pose strategic problems for both Israel and Hamas. For Hamas, it represents their only real influence over Israel, and they may demand longer pauses in fighting or a larger number of Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. On the other hand, extending the truce further could make Israel’s ultimate war goal of destroying Hamas more difficult to achieve.
Each day of the truce gives Hamas more time to regroup, potentially delaying or thwarting Israel’s other war goal. It also means suspending surveillance drone flights over Gaza, a move that Israel was initially reluctant to make as it would lose track of Hamas fighters’ movements.
The situation remains complex as both parties weigh their options for the extension of the truce.