Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has received a list of 10 Israeli hostages set to be released by Hamas today, while Israel has identified an additional 50 female Palestinian prisoners it would release as a ceasefire in Gaza stretches into a fifth day.
No names have yet been made public.
In an effort to prolong the ceasefire beyond the 48-hour extension mediated by Qatar and set to end on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Israel and the West Bank Wednesday.
A plane carrying Qatari diplomats landed in Israel early Tuesday afternoon local time, likely for the same reasons, the newspaper Haaretz reported. Israel and Qatar do not have diplomatic relations.
Qataris’ prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani rejected criticism by Israel that his country, a major funder of Hamas, was too close to the Gaza-based terror group.
“We have built relations with Hamas in order to maintain peace and stability in the region,” he told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine. “When we see a war break out, why would we not use these communication channels? Why would we build them at all? In recent years, we have negotiated cease-fires or similar agreements between Hamas and Israel over and over again. So our connections have been proven useful.”
