Minutes before the halt in fighting was due to expire at 0500GMT, Israel’s military said the “operational pause” would be extended, without specifying for how long.

“In light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue,” it said.

Hamas meanwhile said there was an agreement to “extend the truce for a seventh day,” without further details

Qatar, which has led the truce negotiations, confirmed the pause had been extended until Friday.

There had been pressure to extend the pause to allow more hostage releases and additional aid into devastated Gaza, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Israel for talks Wednesday night.

The truce has brought a temporary halt to fighting that began on October 7 when Hamas militants poured over the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 15,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas officials, and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.

The truce agreement allows for extensions if Hamas can release another 10 hostages a day, and a source close to the group said Wednesday that it was willing to prolong the pause by four days.

But with just an hour to go before the truce was due to expire, Hamas said its offer to free another seven hostages and hand over the bodies of another three it said were killed in Israeli bombardment, had been refused.

Both sides had earlier said they were ready to return to fighting, with Hamas’s armed wing warning its fighters to “maintain high military readiness… in anticipation of a resumption of combat if it is not renewed,” according to a message posted on its Telegram channel.

IDF spokesman Doron Spielman said troops would “move into operational mode very quickly and continue with our targets in Gaza,” if the truce expired.

Sustained humanitarian truce

Overnight, 10 more Israeli hostages were freed under the terms of the deal, with another four Thai hostages and two Israeli-Russian women released outside the framework of the arrangement.

A video released by Hamas showed masked gunmen handing hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Among those freed was Liat Beinin, who also holds American citizenship, and works as a guide at Israel’s Holocaust museum Yad Vashem.

US President Joe Biden said he was “deeply gratified” by the release.

“This deal has delivered meaningful results,” he said of the truce.

Shortly after the hostages arrived in Israel, the country’s prison service said 30 Palestinian prisoners had been released, including well-known activist Ahed Tamimi.

Since the truce began on November 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.

Around 30 foreigners, most of them Thais living in Israel, have been freed outside the terms of the deal.

Israel has made clear it sees the truce as a temporary halt intended to free hostages, but there are growing calls for a more sustained pause in fighting.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded a “true humanitarian ceasefire”, warning Gazans are “in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe.”

And China, whose top diplomat Wang Yi was in New York for Security Council talks on the violence, urged an immediate “sustained humanitarian truce”, in a position paper released Thursday.

Everything is gone

The hostage releases have brought joy tinged with agony, with families anxiously waiting each night to learn if their loved ones will be freed, and learning harrowing details from those who return.

Four-year-old Abigail was captured after crawling out from under the body of her father, killed by militants, covered in his blood, her great aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali said.

“It’s a miracle,” she said of the little girl’s survival and release.

However, Israel’s army also said Wednesday it was investigating a claim by Hamas’s armed wing that a 10-month-old baby hostage, his four-year-old brother and their mother had all been killed in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.

Israel pounded the Gaza Strip relentlessly before the truce, forcing an estimated 1.7 million people to leave their homes and limiting the entry of food, water, medicine and fuel.

Conditions in the territory remain “catastrophic”, according to the World Food Programme, and the population faces a “high risk of famine.

Israeli forces targeted several hospitals in northern Gaza during the fighting, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes.

The spokesman for the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, Ashraf al-Qudra, told AFP Wednesday that doctors found five premature babies dead in Gaza City’s Al-Nasr hospital, which medical staff had been forced to abandon.

The truce has allowed those displaced to return to their homes, but for many, there is little left.

“I discovered that my house had been destroyed — 27 years of my life to build it and everything is gone,” said Taghrid al-Najjar, 46, after returning to her home in southeastern Gaza.

The violence in Gaza has also raised tensions in the West Bank, where nearly 240 Palestinians have been killed by either Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

An eight-year-old boy and a teenager were the latest deaths in the occupied territory, with Israel saying it “responded with live fire… and hits were identified” after suspects hurled explosive devices towards troops.

During Tuesday’s plenary, Senators Adamu Aliero and Kawu Sumaila sponsored a motion titled “Urgent Need to Call for Ceasefire on the ongoing Conflict between Israel and Hamas/ Palestine War.”

This motion was co-sponsored by 43 other Senators from different political parties.

The Senate has urged the Federal Government to collaborate with the United Nations and other nations to work towards an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

Additionally, they called on the Bola Tinubu-led administration to push for a two-state arrangement, which they believe could provide a lasting solution to the longstanding conflict.

The motion highlighted the complexity and history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has persisted for over a century. It originated with competing claims over land between Israel and Palestine, leading to violence, displacement, and suffering on both sides.

The motion emphasized that the conflict has seen numerous wars, uprisings, and failed negotiations, with the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip remaining a major source of tension and conflict.

The Senators also noted the rising death toll and humanitarian crisis, with a significant number of casualties being women, children, and members of the press.

They stressed the international community’s condemnation of the conflict and warned of the potential for it to spread to neighboring countries and escalate further.

Senators expressed their desire for a peaceful resolution and highlighted the importance of a two-state solution, which has been proposed and accepted by one side but rejected by the other.

They emphasized the need for peace and discouraged a cycle of retaliation, calling for a negotiated two-state solution to end the violence.

The Deputy President of the Senate underscored the importance of peace for economic development and called for a global effort to achieve a ceasefire and pursue a permanent two-state solution.

Other Senators echoed the call for peace, emphasizing that Nigeria should support the United Nations in pressing for a two-state solution.

In his closing remarks, the President of the Senate expressed his appreciation for the Senate’s resolution, emphasizing the importance of peace and the need for the two parties in the conflict to learn to coexist.

He encouraged efforts to work on a two-state solution as a means to address the ongoing crisis in the region.

In Israel, the death toll from Saturday’s shock cross-border assault by Hamas militants rose to 1,200, making it the deadliest attack in the country’s 75-year history, while Gaza officials reported more than 900 people killed as Israel pounded the territory with air strikes.

Hamas said two of its top officials had been killed, while Israel’s military said the bodies of roughly 1,500 Hamas infiltrators had been found.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israel’s military response to Saturday’s attack is only the start of a sustained war to destroy the Islamist group and “change the Middle East”.

Fears of a regional conflagration have surged ahead of an expected Israeli ground incursion into Gaza.

At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with hundreds of air strikes overnight, a Hamas government official said Wednesday.

The strikes destroyed several buildings of the Hamas-linked Islamic University in Gaza City, a university official said.

The Israeli military confirmed it had hit dozens of Hamas targets during the night.

It said fighter jets destroyed “advanced detection systems” that Hamas used to spot military aircraft.

They also hit 80 Hamas targets in the Beit Hanoun area of the northeastern Gaza Strip, including two bank branches used by the Islamist group to “fund terrorism” in the enclave, the military said.

In response to Saturday’s attack, Israel imposed a “total siege” on Gaza, suspending supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel to the already blockaded enclave.

Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, is threatening to execute hostages kidnapped in Israel, including young people captured during a music festival where around 270 died.