30 Palestinian hostages released from Israeli prisons

During the first day of the 48-hour extension of truce in Gaza, 30 Palestinian hostages were released from Israeli prisons on Tuesday.

According to AFP, the final 24 hours of the extended agreement will witness one more exchange of hostages.

However, Qatar said it is hoping for a more durable arrangement.

“Our main focus right now, and our hope, is to reach a sustainable truce that will lead to further negotiations and eventually to an end… to this war,” Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari told news conference at Doha.

“However, we are working with what we have. And what we have right now is the provision to the agreement that allows us to extend days as long as Hamas is able to guarantee the release of at least ten hostages.”

This provision allowed the current extension of the truce to release ten Israeli hostages from Gaza overnight.

There were also two Thais freed outside the scope of the agreement.