Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza extended for two days, Qatar says

Israel and Hamas have agreed to extend the four-day truce in Gaza for another two days, mediator Qatar says.

Hamas said the extension was "under the same conditions", which were for 50 Israeli hostages to be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has yet to comment, but it had offered a day's pause in the fighting for every 10 Israeli hostages freed.

It came as 11 hostages were released in the final exchange under the original deal that took effect on Friday.

Israeli officials said three-year-old twins and their mother were among them, along with six more children, an 18-year-old and her mother.

The Israeli military said they had crossed into Israeli territory. However all of the released children's fathers remained in Gaza.

Those freed included people who also held French, German and Argentine nationality, Qatar said.

Thirty-three Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli jails were due to be released under the truce deal.

Hamas - which is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and other Western powers - has freed 39 Israelis over the previous three days. In exchange, Israel has freed 117 Palestinian prisoners.

Nineteen foreign nationals, one of whom has Israeli citizenship, have also been handed over by Hamas under separate agreements.

The pause in the fighting is also allowing a big increase in deliveries of aid to Gaza, where there is a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza and imposed a siege in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and about 240 others taken hostage.

Gaza's Hamas-run government says more than 14,800 people have been killed in the territory since the war began.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari announced on Monday afternoon on X, formerly known as Twitter, that "as part of the ongoing mediation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian pause for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip".

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters the US welcomed the extension.

"This humanitarian pause has already brought a halt to the fighting together with a surge of humanitarian assistance. Now, in order to extend the pause Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children over the next two days," he said.

"We would of course hope to see the pause extended further and that will depend upon Hamas continuing to release hostages."

Before the start of Monday's exchange, an Israeli official said that 184 people remained in captivity in Gaza, including 14 foreign nationals and 80 Israelis with dual citizenship.

On Sunday, a Palestinian official told the BBC that Hamas was prepared to release up to 40 additional hostages, which would mean a four-day extension under the terms offered by Israel.

Israel was reported to be leaning towards a more gradual, day-by-day approach. And it has made it clear that it is preparing to resume the war in Gaza at the end of the process.

"At the end of the outline, we will go to realising our goals with full force: eliminating Hamas, ensuring that Gaza will not go back to being what it was and, of course, releasing all of our hostages," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement on Sunday evening.

Earlier, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani told the BBC's US partner CBS News that the agreement would be extended if Hamas was "able to prove, to locate, and secure some of the hostages that are within the criteria of the first group, which is women and children".

But he warned that Hamas's "very complicated structure" presented a challenge for Qatari mediators, with the group's political leaders in Doha having to relay information to and from military commanders in Gaza.