United States President Joe Biden said on Sunday he hoped to see the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas extended.
“That’s my goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in Gaza,” AFP quoted the US president as saying in a media address.
The three-day-old truce “is delivering live-saving results,” Biden added, stressing, “Critically needed aid is going in, and hostages are coming out.”
Biden’s comments came as Hamas militants released a third group of hostages including a four-year-old American girl on Sunday with more Palestinian prisoners set to be freed in exchange.
This is also as a source close to Hamas said the group was willing to prolong a truce.
The exchanges under a four-day ceasefire that started Friday have been the first relief for captives’ families since the militant group attacked Israel on October 7, prompting devastating Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip.
Sunday’s releases bring the total number of Israelis freed under the deal to 39 since Friday, AFP gathered.
In exchange, a further 39 Palestinian prisoners were freed on Sunday, the Israeli prison service said.
This followed the release of 78 other Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails over the past two days.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that the 13 released hostages were back on Israeli territory, and another four were on their way to Egypt.
Biden said the four-year-old American girl had been through trauma. “She’s been through a terrible trauma,” the president said of the girl, Abigail, whose parents were murdered by Hamas militants in the unprecedented attacks.
The other four that were released outside the terms of the truce include one Russian-Israeli who Hamas said was freed “in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Those freed were among around 240 captured on October 7 when Hamas fighters broke through Gaza’s militarised border with Israel to launch the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, killing about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, according to Israeli authorities.
In response, Israel launched an air, artillery and naval bombardment alongside a ground offensive to destroy Hamas, killing nearly 15,000 people, mostly civilians and including thousands of children, according to the Hamas government in Gaza.