Hamas is “willing to extend the truce” with Israel, according to an AFP source.
“The mediators are currently making strong, intense and continuous efforts for an additional day in the truce and then working to extend it again for other days,” the anonymous source said.
The truce, which is now in its seventh day, has resulted in dozens of Israeli hostages returning to Israel and the release of over 200 Palestinian prisoners as humanitarian aid flows into Gaza.
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The truce between Israel and Hamas expired after seven days.
Around an hour before the deadline was set to expire Israel’s aerial defense system intercepted one rocket launched from the Gaza Strip, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it struck terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip after “Hamas violated the agreement.”
“Hamas violated the agreement and in addition fired at the territory of the State of Israel,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari posted on X Friday morning.
“The IDF renewed fire against the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”
The truce expired at 7 a.m. local time (12 a.m. ET) after a seven-day pause in fighting and hostage exchanges.
Hopes for an extension into an eight-day truce never came to fruition on Thursday.
Children taken hostage by Hamas were “marked” by their captors with burns from searing-hot motorcycle exhaust pipes, family of recently released child hostages have revealed.
“They told us stories about what they went through inside Gaza. The stories are horrible,” said Yaniv Yaakov, the uncle of 12-year-old Yagil and 16-year-old Or, two boys freed this week as part of Israel’s ceasefire deal with Hamas.
AP
“Each child that was taken by Hamas was taken on a motorbike and they took every child, took his leg and put it on the exhaust of that motorbike, so they have a burn so they will be marked if they run, if they escape, so they can find them,” Yaakov said during an interview, according to the Times of Israel.
His nephews and other children held captive by the terrorists were also frequently moved from place to place, and drugged to keep them complacent.
