Within hours of the end of the four day truce agreed between the Government of Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, the international community is pressing to prolong ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. A possibility contemplated in the agreement reached last week and that, despite the willingness expressed by both parties, has not yet materialized.

Egyptian security sources cited by Reuters point out, however, that the negotiators from Cairo, Qatar and the United States to extend the truce They are close to reaching an agreement that allows its extension. According to the aforementioned agency, negotiators are still debating How long will the extension last and which prisoners will be released?. According to the version of these Egyptian security sources, Hamas is seeking a four-day extension, while Israel wants the extension to be signed day by day.

The truth is that in the last few hours both the Islamist group and the Israeli Government have publicly expressed their willingness to extend the truce, which came into effect last Friday and included the release of 50 Israeli captives in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners.

“Hamas is trying to extend the truce once the four-day period has ended, seriously trying to increase the number of released detainees, as established in the humanitarian truce agreement,” the Islamist group announced this Sunday on Telegram. In turn, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahuconveyed to the President of the United States, Joe Biden, his willingness to extend the pact, although he warned that after this ceasefire Israel will continue to attack with force until its objectives are met.

NATO and the EU ask to extend the pause

For their part, numerous voices from the international community call for extending the truce. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, called this Monday for the military pause to be extended to allow for the release of more hostages and “much-needed relief” for Gaza’s civilian population. “I ask for an extension of the pause. This would provide much-needed relief and free more hostages“, he declared, before the meeting of foreign ministers of the Alliance in Brussels.

The Foreign Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, Riyad al-Maliki, has warned that The death toll “will be double” if the truce is not prolonged in Gaza and has asked to work to extend it. She did so during a press conference with the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, after a bilateral meeting during the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean held in Barcelona.

Al Maliki has warned that the population concentration in southern Gaza has doubled in recent days, so now “any Israeli attack, instead of killing one child, will kill two.” Thus, he has considered it important to extend the truce “as much as possible” and has highlighted that Qatar, Egypt, United States, EU, Spain and Palestine They work so that it can be prolonged. “It means stopping the killings. That is the most important thing for us,” she insisted.

Also Albares has also asked the parties to extend the truce “until a long ceasefire is consolidated, while the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrellhas stated that the pause in hostilities should be extended to work on a political solution that breaks the cycle of violence “forever.”

Meanwhile, in Israel, civil pressure for the Government and the Army to do everything possible to return all the hostages is increasing, as was evident last Saturday in Tel Aviv, where thousands of people gathered to mark the 50th. days of war to once again ask for the release of the captives. So far, Hamas has transferred 39 Israeli hostages to the Red Cross as part of the agreement with the Netanyahu government, in addition to another 19 people not included in the pact.