Mediator Qatar has said a truce between Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza has been extended by two days, continuing a pause in seven weeks of warfare that has killed thousands in the Palestinian enclave.
"An agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip," a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said in a post on social media platform X.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, but a White House official confirmed an agreement had been reached.
Hamas also said it had agreed a two-day extension to the truce with Qatar and Egypt, who have been facilitating indirect negotiations between the two sides.
"An agreement has been reached with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt to extend the temporary humanitarian truce by two more days, with the same conditions as in the previous truce," a Hamas official said in a phone call with Reuters.
None of the announcements specified how many hostages would be released, but earlier the head of Egypt's State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, said the deal being negotiated would include the release of 20 Israeli hostages from among those seized by Hamas during its 7 October assault on southern Israel.
In exchange 60 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails would be freed, he said.
The initial four-day truce was due to end tonight.
The Israeli military said tonight that the Red Cross confirmed that 11 hostages were on their way to Israeli territory after being released by Hamas in Gaza.
The hostages released included three French citizens, two Germans and six Argentinians, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman said on social media platform X.
Hamas said earlier that it had received a list of 33 Palestinians to be released from Israeli jails in return.
It said these included three female prisoners and 30 minors.
The truce agreed last week was the first halt in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages back into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
In response to that attack, Israel has bombarded the enclave and mounted a ground offensive in the north.
Some 14,800 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza health authorities say, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Wide areas of the Hamas-ruled enclave have been flattened by Israeli air strikes and artillery bombardments, and a humanitarian crisis has unfolded as supplies of food, fuel, drinking water and medicine run out.
The truce agreement also allowed for aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Yesterday, Hamas freed 17 people, including a four-year-old Israeli-American girl, bringing the total number the militant group has released since Friday to 58, including foreigners.
Israel freed 39 teenage Palestinian prisoners yesterday, taking the total number of Palestinians freed under the truce to 117.
Under the terms of the current deal, Hamas is due to release in total 50 Israeli women and children held hostage in Gaza.
There is no limit in the deal on the number of foreigners it can release.
An Israeli government spokesperson said the total number of hostages still held in Gaza today was 184, including 14 foreigners and 80 Israelis with dual nationality.
Among the hostages freed over the weekend was nine-year-old Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand, who was reunited with her family 50 days after being kidnapped by Hamas.
Footage released over the weekend shows Emily being reunited with her father Tom after being released by Hamas.
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Palestinians gave the freed prisoners a jubilant reception in Ramallah, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Omar Abdullah Al Hajj, 17, released yesterday, told Reuters he'd been kept in the dark about what was happening in the outside world.
"We were 11 people crammed into a single room where usually there are six. There was never enough food and I was never told how long I was going to stay," he said.
"I can't believe I'm free now but my joy is incomplete because we still have our brothers who remain in prison," said Al Hajj, whom Israel's Justice Ministry accused of belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group and posing a security threat which it did not specify.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekend that once the truce ends "we will return with full force to achieve our goals: The elimination of Hamas, ensuring that Gaza does not return to what it was; and of course the release of all our hostages."
