The last day of the truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was even longer than usual for the families of hostages awaiting their release. On Monday, November 27, the Israeli authorities were not satisfied with the list presented by Hamas, while 11 people were still to be released and almost 200 Israelis remained detained in Gaza.
The situation was finally resolved at sunset. On the X social network, a message from Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that an agreement "had been reached to extend the two-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip" until 6 am on Thursday. An hour later, Israel confirmed the compromise. In the negotiations mentioned by Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening, two more days meant that an additional 20 hostages would be released – 10 per day, as provided for in the war cabinet decision on November 22. One hundred and fifty Palestinian prisoners can still be released, compared with 50 Israeli hostages. On Tuesday morning, the Israeli government received a list of 10 hostages to be released during the day, without disclosing their names.
The extension of the truce, which also allows humanitarian aid to be delivered to the partly destroyed enclave where "the humanitarian situation remains catastrophic," according to UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland, was happily received on the international scene. In Washington, John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, welcomed the fact on Monday that "the humanization pause has already brought a halt to the fighting, together with a surge of humanitarian assistance," adding that the United States would "hope to see the pause extended further, and that will depend upon Hamas continuing to release hostages." "That’s really the goal here: Get all the hostages home with their families where they belong. However long that could take," he insisted.
Late on Monday evening, the Israelis finally found out who the latest freed hostages were. After those from the Kfar Aza kibbutz, those from Nir Oz will now be reunited with their loved ones. This locality, close to the border with the Gaza Strip, was also hard hit by the Hamas attack. Out of a total of 400 inhabitants, 25 were killed and 80 remain missing. Among them, how many hostages? At least 11: Two women and nine children were returned to Israel on Monday.
After the first American hostage – the four-year-old Abigail Edan, freed on Sunday – it was the turn of three French-Israelis to regain their freedom, alongside two Germans and six Argentinians. Three of the released minors have dual French-Israeli nationality: Eitan Yahalomi and Erez Kalderon, two 12-year-old boys, and the latter's older sister, Sahar Kalderon, 16. Speaking on French radio station RTL on Tuesday morning, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said that the three youngsters were "doing well," but stressed they had suffered "psychological shock."
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