Hamas: truce extended until Thursday, three Franco-Israeli hostages released – L’Express

The truce between Israel and Hamas is extended for the first time on Tuesday with the planned release of other Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip where the humanitarian situation remains “catastrophic”.

⇒ The truce is extended until Thursday.

⇒ 11 hostages, including three Franco-Israeli, were released.

⇒ Antony Blinken visits Israel.

A few hours before the end of the truce, the United States and Qatar announced its extension for two days, from Tuesday, November 28, 5:00 a.m. GMT, to Thursday, November 30, 5:00 a.m. GMT. Hamas confirmed the temporary continuation of the truce “with the same conditions as the previous truce” after declaring “working on a new list of hostages” to be released. This extension should allow the release of around 20 hostages and 60 additional prisoners, and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

In force since Friday, it allowed the release of 59 hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip (and an additional 19 as part of external negotiations) against 150 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Three Franco-Israeli minors were released from captivity among the eleven returned to their families on Monday: Erez and Sahar Kalderon, aged 12 and 16, and Eitan, Yahalomi, 12 years old. The news was welcomed by the French head of state, who said he was “extremely happy”. An “incomplete joy” nevertheless, since Erez and Sahar’s father remains in the hands of Hamas and many hostages are still detained in Gaza.

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken will once again travel to Israel and the occupied West Bank by the end of the week, to meet respectively Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas. “During his meetings in the Middle East, he will emphasize the need to continue providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, ensure the release of all hostages and improve the protection of civilians in Gaza,” said a American official.

On the Israeli side, the army and the government, under pressure from civil society to release other hostages, have reiterated in recent days their intention to eventually resume fighting in order to “destroy” Hamas, to curb any “threat” coming from the Gaza Strip and impose a balance of power favorable to the release of certain hostages. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also agreed overnight on a “war” extension of 30.3 billion shekels (7.5 billion euros).

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will make his first visit to Turkey on Tuesday, hoping to put aside past differences and formulate a joint response with Ankara to Israel’s actions in Gaza. A staunch defender of the Palestinian cause, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took up the cause of Hamas as the number of Palestinian casualties in the Gaza Strip increased, and called Israel a “terrorist state” and said Hamas was a “group of liberators who protect their land”.

But meetings between leaders of Muslim and Arab countries have so far failed to find common ground on immediate economic and political measures to be taken regarding Gaza. According to analysts, the Iranian president could, during his visit, try to convince Ankara to go beyond rhetoric and sever its thriving trade relations with Israel.

A new Jewish community center in Montreal was the target of a Molotov cocktail overnight from Sunday to Monday, against a backdrop of a particularly violent rise in anti-Semitic acts in Canada since October 7. No injuries have been reported, indicates the director of the center, however deploring “odious violent and repeated attacks”.

In mid-November, he himself was accused by the White House of “abject promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred”. In a post on X, he endorsed a conspiracy theory according to which Jews had a secret plan to encourage illegal immigration to the West in order to weaken the white majority there.

Elon Musk is now appearing in Israel, where he visited on Monday November 27. The Israeli president recalled the “huge role” that the billionaire has to play in the fight against hatred of Jews, while rampant anti-Semitism spreads on his social network “The platforms that you run, unfortunately, harbor a lot of hatred, hatred of Jews, anti-Semitism. I think we need to talk about how to combat this hatred,” he told Elon Musk. “These people have been fed propaganda since they were children. […] Propaganda can influence people’s minds to that extent,” noted the boss of X and the giants Tesla or SpaceX, without mentioning possible measures on X.