Qatar, Mossad officials meet in Israel, Hamas looks to extend Gaza ceasefire

The United States, Hamas and Israel sought to extend the four-day “pause” in the Gaza war Sunday night, after it had completed 80% of a hostage deal, releasing 40 Israelis, one Filipino and 17 Thai citizens over the last three days.

A jubilant Israel welcomed 14 of those Israelis and three Thais on Sunday, including four-year-old Avigail Idan, who also holds American citizenship.

Hamas killed her parents in front of her in Kfar Aza during the group’s attack on Southern Israel on October 7, when terrorists seized some 240 hostages.

“We are moved to the depth of our souls,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters: “This is an emotional day, but we have not forgotten for a moment the hostages who have been held in captivity in Gaza for over 51 days.” The IDF is prepared to resume its military campaign, he said, as he spoke of the war against Hamas sparked by the October 7 attack, in which the terror group killed over 1,200 people in southern Israel.

Plans for the next phase of the war have already been approved, Hagari said, adding that “as long as we can free hostages from Hamas captivity, we will do so.”

The next phase of the war

Netanyahu said he welcomed the fact that the deal was structured in a way that allowed for an extension.

Qatar, which mediated the original hostage deal even though it has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, had already sent an intelligence delegation to the Jewish state on Saturday to discuss extending the deal.

Mossad officials hosted their Qatari counterparts, including on Sunday, to confer on the recovery of hostages held by Hamas and other elements of a Gaza truce, an Israeli security official said on Sunday.

Cooperation between Qatari and Israeli security agencies is “traditionally close,” despite the lack of formal relations between the countries, the official said.

The war cabinet met on Sunday night to debate the possibility of extending the pause. US President Joe Biden told reporters also on Sunday that he would work to make that happen.

“We’ll work to extend the deal,” Biden said while wrapping up his Thanksgiving visit to Nantucket, Massachusetts.

“This deal is structured so it can be extended to keep building on these results. That is my goal, that is our goal: this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into Gaza,” he said.

“This is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour approach.”

Biden expressed his gratitude for Idan’s release, stating, “Thank God she is home. I wish I were there to hold her.”

He also discussed details of the deal, which included a four-day pause in the Gaza War that began at 10 a.m. Friday and was scheduled to end on Tuesday morning after the final release Monday of what could be 10 or 11 Israeli captives or more.

The pause can be extended an additional 24 hours for every ten hostages that are freed.

Israel in exchange agreed that for every hostage released, it would free three jailed Palestinian women and minors, held on security-related offenses.

Some 117 Palestinian prisoners were freed in the first three days, with an additional 30 to 33 expected to be released Monday. Israel has already cleared a list of an additional 150 such prisoners should the deal be extended.

Hamas said on Sunday night that it “seeks to extend the truce” through “serious efforts to increase the number of those released from imprisonment.”

In addition to the prisoner release, humanitarian aid has been doubled with some 200 trucks entering Gaza through Rafah daily since the truce went into effect on Friday.

Biden, who was instrumental in the creation of the deal together with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, told reporters that he had worked for the pause and was dedicated to the release of the hostages, some nine of whom are believed to be US citizens.

“For weeks I have been advocating a pause in the fighting to increase assistance for Gaza civilians and to facilitate the release of the hostages,” he said.

“We worked urgently to take advance of the pause to surge aid into Gaza” including fuel, food, water, medicine and cooking gas.

“More is needed, but this deal is delivering life-saving results,” he said.

Looking ahead, Biden said, hard and necessary steps are needed to build an integrated future for the region that includes a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I would like to see the pause go on as long as prisoners are going out,” he said.

“All the players in the region are looking for a way to end this so the hostages are released and Hamas is no longer in control of any portion of Gaza,” the president said.

Biden has been under pressure – to not just pause the war, but to halt it all together – by those in the Democratic Party who are concerned by the high death toll among Palestinians. Hamas has asserted that some 14,800 Palestinians have been killed in war-related violence.

Biden has not called for a ceasefire, even as he has sought to extend the pause.

Netanyahu said that he spoke with Biden on Sunday night and stressed to him that he was committed to resuming Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza once the hostages were freed.

It was a message he hammered home earlier in the day, when he visited IDF troops in Gaza and was shown Hamas tunnels.

“We continue until the end – until victory,” Netanyahu said.

“Nothing will stop us. We are convinced that we have the power, the strength, the will and the determination to achieve all the war’s goals – and we will,” he said.

His visit marked the first time in two decades that an Israeli prime minister has visited Gaza.

Israel unilaterally withdrew from the coastal enclave to its internationally recognized border with it in 2005, destroying 21 settlements there, pulling the IDF out of Gaza and handing the territory to the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas forcibly seized control of Gaza in 2007 in a bloody coup, in which it expelled the PA’s Fatah Party from the enclave.

Now that troops have entered Gaza as part of the IDF’s military campaign, they have remained there during the truce.

“We will make every effort to return our captives, and eventually we will return them all,” Netanyahu said as he stood wearing a helmet and flak jacket with the troops.

“We have three goals for this war: eliminate Hamas, return all our captives and ensure that Gaza does not become a threat to the State of Israel again,” he said.

He recalled how he had seen graffiti on a wall stating: “The Jewish people live.”

Netanyahu said he wanted to extend the phrase to also say: "and the Jewish people are victorious.”

Reuters contributed to this report.