Posted on 11/27/23
| News Source: Arutz-7
The Red Cross confirmed that it has received the fourth group of eleven hostages who have been released by the Hamas terrorist organization this evening.
Meanwhile, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said that the organization has enough hostages "to extend the truce by two days", and added: "We hope we can extend the ceasefire for a longer time."
The group is the fourth to be released by Hamas over the last four days as part of the hostage and ceasefire deal reached last week. Nine children and two of their mothers are being released.
The cabinet secretariat asked the ministers of the government to approve the increase of the pool of names of security prisoners who could be released under the hostage deal by 60 from its current 300. This is after Qatar announced that a deal had been reached to extend the ceasefire by two days.
According to the agreed-upon outline, for every three security prisoners Israel releases, Hamas will release one Israeli hostage. 20 Israeli hostages are scheduled to be released, ten each day, during the two days of the ceasefire extension. Israel will likely release 60 security prisoners, 30 each day, in return.
Hamas seized about 240 hostages during the massacre of October 7 in which the terrorist organization murdered over 1,200 people in southern Israel. 51 hostages have been or are being freed as part of the original hostage deal, and 71 will have been freed in total with the agreement to extend the ceasefire. About 150 people will remain hostages in Gaza if the ceasefire is not extended again.
Earlier, CNN reported that over 40 hostages are being held by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization and by Gazan citizens not affiliated with any terrorist organization, complicating hostage negotiations.
Israel has vowed to eliminate the Hamas terrorist organization once the current ceasefire expires to prevent an atrocity like the October 7 massacre from ever happening again. Hamas officials have expressed their intention to repeatedly commit massacres like the attack of October 7.