According to a Hamas source, the Palestinian resistance group is prepared to prolong the existing truce with Israel in Gaza for two to four days once it expires on Monday (tomorrow).
"Hamas informed the mediators that resistance movements were willing to extend the current cease-fire by two to four days." "The resistance believes it is possible to secure the release of 20 to 40 Israeli prisoners," an AFP source said, referring to hostages kidnapped in the October 7 raids.
According to Israel's prison service, 39 Palestinian prisoners were freed on Sunday as part of a ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The statement came after the deal liberated 13 Israeli prisoners in Palestinian territory, as well as three Thais and a Russian-Israeli dual citizen.
After the Palestinian group liberated 17 additional prisoners, including a 4-year-old Israeli-American child, US President Joe Biden said he hoped the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas might last as long as captives were released.
Hamas said it would prolong the cease-fire, which will enter its fourth and last agreed-upon day on Monday, provided Israel made significant steps to raise the number of Palestinian prisoners released. Israel freed 39 young Palestinian inmates on Sunday, bringing the total since the truce's inception to 117.
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported on Sunday that Hamas had successfully transferred 13 Israelis, three Thais, and one Russian person from Gaza.
Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old prisoner, had watched her parents being slaughtered by Hamas gunmen during their Oct. 7 incursion into Israel and had been kept captive since then, according to Biden.
"What she endured is unthinkable," Biden remarked at a press conference in the United States.