An American woman is among 14 hostages Hamas released late Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning local time, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al Ansari announced.
The woman's release means there is only one other American woman held by Hamas, or another Gaza-based terrorist group, though there are seven U.S. men still in captivity as well. Liat Beinin, an Israeli American dual citizen, was identified by CNN as the released woman.
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Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary ceasefire last week in which Hamas would release 50 women and children that it took hostage during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in exchange for the stoppage in fighting, a surge in humanitarian aid, and the release of three times as many Palestinian women and teenage boys held in Israeli prisons. The two sides agreed to a two-day extension of the deal earlier this week, which is set to expire.
America's top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is set to travel to Israel and the West Bank, where he will urge leaders once again to extend the ceasefire. Israeli officials have said they would extend the ceasefire by one day for every 10 hostages Hamas releases, while an Israeli military spokesperson said on Wednesday there were 159 hostages still in Gaza, though it's unclear if that's still the most updated figure.
"With regard to the pause, look, we’d like to see the pause extended because what it has enabled first and foremost is hostages being released, coming home, being reunited with their families," Blinken said on Wednesday. "It’s also enabled us to surge humanitarian assistance in to the people of Gaza who so desperately need it. So, its continuation, by definition, means that more hostages would be coming home, more assistance would be getting in."
It's unclear how likely a future hostage swap would be if the current truce expires and fighting resumes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Wednesday that Israeli forces would restart their military campaign as soon as the temporary truce expires. The prime minister has faced pressure from the conservative faction of his coalition to restart the military campaign.
"In the last few days, I hear a question — will Israel return to fighting after this phase of returning our abductees is exhausted? So my answer is unequivocal — yes. There is no way we are not going back to fighting until the end," he said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. "This is my policy, the entire cabinet stands behind it, the entire government stands behind it, the soldiers stand behind it, the people stand behind it — and that is exactly what we will do."
The first stage of the Israeli military's campaign after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks was a significant aerial assault that resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, civilians and combatants alike. The overwhelming destruction and death toll raised international outrage, including from the U.S., which urged Israel to be more precise in how it carries out its military response.
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Israel then launched a ground campaign in Gaza that primarily focused on the north, and it has sought to capture Hamas command posts, including those it said were based under hospitals. Israeli forces have indicated the next stage of their military campaign could focus on southern Gaza, which reveals a precarious situation given Israel's military ordered the evacuation of more than a million Palestinians from northern Gaza to the south.
“We don't support them moving in the south unless or until they can demonstrate a plan that accounts for the additional civilian life that is now in South Gaza and how they're going to try to protect that,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters this week.