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Arab World

Israel and Hamas Agree to Extend Temporary Truce

A Palestinian man sits in an armchair outside a destroyed building in Gaza City on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, the sixth day of the temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)
A Palestinian man sits in an armchair outside a destroyed building in Gaza City on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, the sixth day of the temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)
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Israel and Hamas Agree to Extend Temporary Truce

A Palestinian man sits in an armchair outside a destroyed building in Gaza City on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, the sixth day of the temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)
A Palestinian man sits in an armchair outside a destroyed building in Gaza City on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, the sixth day of the temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)

Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement on Thursday to extend their six-day ceasefire by at least one more day to allow negotiators to keep working on deals to swap hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners.
The truce has allowed much needed humanitarian aid into Gaza after much of the coastal territory of 2.3 million was reduced to wasteland in response to a deadly rampage by Hamas militants into southern Israel on Oct. 7, said Reuters.
"In light of the mediators' efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue," the Israeli military said in a statement, released minutes before the temporary truce was due to expire at 0500 GMT.
Hamas, which freed 16 hostages in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday, said in a statement the truce would continue for a seventh day.
The conditions of the ceasefire, including the halt of hostilities and the entry of humanitarian aid, remain the same, according to a foreign ministry spokesperson from Qatar, which has been a key mediator between the warring sides, along with Egypt and the United States.
"A short time ago, Israel was given a list of women and children in accordance with the terms of the agreement, and therefore the truce will continue," the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Hamas earlier said Israel had refused to receive a further seven women and children and the bodies of three other hostages in exchange for extending the truce.
Hamas had said a family of three Israeli hostages, including the youngest hostage, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, had been killed during Israel's bombardment of the enclave.
Before the agreement, both Israel and Hamas had said they were ready to resume fighting.
Ninety-seven hostages have been freed since the start of the truce, according to a Reuters tally. The Israeli military says 145 hostages remain in Gaza.
On Wednesday night, two Russian citizens and four Thai citizens were released outside the framework of the agreement while the 10 Israeli citizens freed included five dual nationals, officials said. They were a Dutch dual citizen, who is also a minor, three German dual citizens and one US dual citizen.
DIPLOMATIC PUSH
Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Before the truce, Israel bombarded the territory for seven weeks and killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the coastal strip.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had arrived in Tel Aviv earlier on Thursday, his third trip to the region since the Oct. 7 attack, to discuss extending the pause in fighting.
US President Joe Biden was determined to secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas after American Liat Beinin was freed on Wednesday, the White House said in a statement.
The US is urging Israel to narrow the zone of combat and clarify where Palestinian civilians can seek safety during any Israeli operation in southern Gaza, US officials said on Wednesday, to prevent a repeat of the massive death toll from Israel's northern Gaza attacks.
Jordan will host a conference attended by the main UN, regional and international relief agencies on Thursday to coordinate aid to Gaza, official media said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Wednesday the Gaza Strip was in the midst of an "epic humanitarian catastrophe," and he and others called for a ceasefire to replace the temporary truce.
China called on the Security Council on Thursday to formulate a "concrete" timetable and roadmap for a two-state solution to achieve a "comprehensive, just and lasting" settlement of the Palestinian issue

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Arab World

Israeli Airstrikes Kill Four in Gaza

UN vehicles escort ambulances and a bus carrying Palestinian patients in Khan Younis as they travel to the Rafah crossing to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Thursday, Mar, 19, 2026.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
UN vehicles escort ambulances and a bus carrying Palestinian patients in Khan Younis as they travel to the Rafah crossing to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Thursday, Mar, 19, 2026.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Israeli Airstrikes Kill Four in Gaza

UN vehicles escort ambulances and a bus carrying Palestinian patients in Khan Younis as they travel to the Rafah crossing to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Thursday, Mar, 19, 2026.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
UN vehicles escort ambulances and a bus carrying Palestinian patients in Khan Younis as they travel to the Rafah crossing to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Thursday, Mar, 19, 2026.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An Israeli airstrike on a police vehicle on Sunday killed three people in the middle of the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, health officials said, hours after another person was killed in a strike on northern Gaza.

According to Reuters, medics and police sources said the three men killed in Nuseirat were members of the Hamas-led police force.

Ten people were also wounded in the attack, medics said.

Earlier on Sunday ⁠a separate airstrike ⁠killed one person - identified as a leader of one of Fatah's armed groups - and injured an unknown number of others in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza.

The Israeli military said it was checking on ⁠the two incidents.

While Israeli attacks in Gaza declined in the days after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, according to residents, medics and analysts, they have since begun to rise again. Israeli fire has killed dozens of Palestinians since the outbreak of the Iran war, Gaza health officials say.

In Gaza there have been regular outbreaks of ⁠violence ⁠since a ceasefire went into effect in October following two years of devastating war triggered by Hamas-led attacks in Israel in October 2023.

The territory's health ministry says that at least 680 people have been killed by Israeli fire since the October ceasefire. Israel said four soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza in the same period.

Israel and Hamas have traded blame for truce violations.

Arab World

Lebanon President Calls Israeli Bridge Strikes 'Prelude to Ground Invasion'

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (AFP)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (AFP)
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Lebanon President Calls Israeli Bridge Strikes 'Prelude to Ground Invasion'

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (AFP)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (AFP)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Sunday slammed Israeli strikes on bridges and other infrastructure in the country's south, calling such attacks a "prelude to a ground invasion".

Aoun "condemned Israel's targeting and destruction of infrastructure and vital facilities in southern Lebanon, particularly the Qasmiyeh bridge over the Litani River and other bridges", a presidency statement said, AFP reported.

"These attacks represent a dangerous escalation and flagrant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, and are considered a prelude to a ground invasion," Aoun said, hours after Israel's defense minister said the army had been ordered to destroy more bridges allegedly being used by Hezbollah.

Arab World

Ceasefire Efforts Enter an 'Open-Ended Pause,' Alarming Lebanese

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun holding talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (File - National News Agency)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun holding talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (File - National News Agency)
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Ceasefire Efforts Enter an 'Open-Ended Pause,' Alarming Lebanese

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun holding talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (File - National News Agency)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun holding talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (File - National News Agency)

Lebanese-US efforts to secure a ceasefire have entered a prolonged “open-ended pause,” with no clear indication of when it might end, while the decisive factor remains tied to developments on the ground as the war between Hezbollah and Israel in the south reaches its peak.

 

This has raised concern among political circles tracking the situation, amid fears that the pause could drag on, leaving Lebanon on its own in the absence of any external push to end the war, and opening the door for President Joseph Aoun to call for direct negotiations with Israel to proceed under the cover of a truce that would relieve pressure created by ongoing hostilities from both sides.

 

These circles note that ceasefire efforts remain stalled, colliding with Israel’s insistence on delivering a “decisive blow” to Hezbollah to eliminate its stockpile of heavy rockets. In parallel, they say, the group continues to confront Israel’s ground advance in the south to prevent it from securing deeper control over areas south of the Litani River, amid Israeli threats to destroy what remains of bridges linking the river’s southern and northern banks.

 

Rejection on both sides

 

Sources confirm there is no prospect of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which remains committed to its weapons and is now engaged in what it describes as an “existential battle.” Relinquishing its arms without guarantees, they say, would amount to voluntarily ending its political role.

 

The same position, the sources add, applies to Israel, backed by the US, which will not halt hostilities unless it eliminates Hezbollah’s weapons as part of ending the role of Iran-aligned actors in the region.

 

According to the sources, a ceasefire decision is not supported by either side, Hezbollah or Israel and is fully tied to the trajectory of the broader conflict involving Iran, the US, and Israel. This linkage has stalled Aoun’s call for direct negotiations in the absence of guarantees for a truce. Ending the war in the south, they stress, goes beyond the local arena and is directly connected to the wider confrontation on the Iranian front, making the two fronts inseparable.

 

The sources add that dialogue between Aoun and Hezbollah, for which Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri had helped prepare the ground, remains suspended, as decision-making lies not with the party’s political wing but with its military wing, with which there is no presidential channel. They say Aoun does not bear responsibility for the breakdown, which was triggered by Secretary-General Naim Qassem backing away from a pledge not to intervene militarily in support of Iran.

 

They argue there is no value in dialogue that will not produce results as long as authority rests with a military wing directly linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, even if its leadership seeks to justify this by citing the absence of guarantees. The sources reveal that the group has not received assurances regarding its political future; otherwise, it would not hand over its weapons “for free” to the state while Israel continues its occupation of the south and refuses to commit to the cessation-of-hostilities agreement implemented unilaterally more than a year and three months ago.

 

The same sources say that while the group’s leadership, represented by Qassem, supports Berri’s demand to implement the agreement brokered by France and the US and applied by Lebanon since November 27, 2024, it questions why Washington has stepped back from guarantees ensuring the agreement’s implementation through synchronized steps between Lebanon and Israel.

 

While the group avoids addressing Qassem’s reversal on supporting Iran, the sources say the issue has been settled between the allies and moved past, without dwelling on the stance of ministers aligned with Berri who backed cabinet decisions, in contrast to those aligned with the group who abstained, reflecting its insistence on avoiding a dispute with its only remaining ally.

 

Berri focuses on displaced

 

While Berri is currently focused on supporting efforts led by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government, in cooperation with civil society and NGOs, to provide shelter and basic needs for displaced people, he is also urging them to comply with security measures to maintain stability and prevent tensions with host communities. He praised local support efforts and stressed that maintaining security and stability is a “red line” to safeguard civil peace.

 

Berri’s prioritization of accommodating displaced populations and preparing for further waves, driven by Israeli pressure through displacement and systematic destruction of homes, has prompted questions among observers as to why he has not reactivated his political role.

 

These circles say the answer ultimately lies with him, noting he was the first to welcome a ceasefire and reject negotiations under pressure. This explains his demand for guarantees on the implementation of any agreement, for which the US bears responsibility, to prevent Lebanon from being drawn into new negotiations without clarity on venue, timing, or agenda, especially when an agreement brokered by France and the US already exists and is overseen by the “mechanism committee” tasked with implementing Resolution 1701, but remains dependent on US follow-through.

 

The sources also pointed to remarks by US Ambassador to Beirut Michael Issa following a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi, welcoming Aoun’s call for direct negotiations with Israel. They said he effectively acknowledged the initiative but, instead of facilitating it, undermined it by implying it would take place under fire, rather than through US intervention to halt the war and create conditions for negotiations under US sponsorship and guarantees.