Israel approves temporary extension of Gaza ceasefire to last Ramzan, Passover

The Israeli government said on Sunday that it has approved a temporary extension of the ceasefire in Gaza after the conclusion of the first six-week phase of the agreement with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The extension will last till the end of the Muslim festival of Ramzan in late March and the Jewish Passover period that lasts till mid-April, an official statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The ongoing phase of the ceasefire came into effect on January 19 and was set to expire over the weekend without any certainty about the second phase.

In the first phase, Hamas freed 25 hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The militant group took more than 200 hostages in an attack on southern Israel in October 2023.

The second phase of the ceasefire aims to secure the release of all the remaining hostages held by Hamas and negotiate an end to the war. However, negotiations about this phase have been inconclusive so far.

On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that the framework for the temporary extension was proposed by United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who gained “the impression that, at present, there was no possibility of bridging…

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