Calls for a permanent ceasefire resound on last day of extended Israel-Hamas temporary truce

A total of 12 more hostages - 10 Israelis and two Thais - were released by Hamas on Tuesday night, as Israel released another 30 Palestinian women and minors from its prisons.

Wednesday, November 29, is the last day of the extended pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas. Calls for a permanent ceasefire resounded at the UN Security Council meeting in New York, chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.  

Talks between Israel and Hamas to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were also underway.Israel believes Hamas has enough women and children hostages to allow the current pause in fighting to be extended in Gaza for another two to three days, an official involved in the negotiating process said Wednesday.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement said Wednesday that it had handed over a number of civilian hostages as part of an exchange deal with Israel.

The United Nations called for the international community to move towards a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, saying Jerusalem should serve as the capital of both states.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said aid entering Gaza was far less than needed and said if “this truce expires we will return to the killing at the scale that we have seen, which is unbearable.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the Gaza Strip was in the midst of an “epic humanitarian catastrophe.”

Addressing the Security Council, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said Hamas “is a genocidal terror organization - they don’t hide it - not a reliable partner for peace.”

Family members of Israelis still held by Hamas gathered in Tel Aviv this week to call on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration to further extend the temporary truce so their loved ones can be returned safely.

Israel will consider every serious proposal to extend the truce “inasmuch as there is a serious offer on the table to release the remaining hostages”, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday. 

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will continue fighting Hamas in Gaza “until the end.”

Nearly 40 percent of the 15,000 people confirmed killed in the fighting are under the age of 18, according to health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations. 

Many more are feared buried under the ruins.“The truce must become a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire. The massacres cannot be allowed to resume,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told the Security Council.

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