Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 12:33pm on 29 Nov 2023,Wednesday International
Israel has received a list of hostages that Hamas will free today, Israeli media has reported, citing the prime minister's office. They are the last captives to be released under the 48-hour extension unless another one can be agreed upon before tomorrow morning. As per reports by Sky News, mediator Qatar's foreign ministry is seeking to negotiate additional ceasefire days and more releases. However, with fewer women and children in captivity, this may require negotiating to free at least some Israeli men for the first time, reports Sky News. Reports suggest that the chances of an extension are complicated by the fact that the whereabouts of some hostages remain unknown, as different terror groups entered Israel alongside Hamas on 7 October. Qatar said it is unsure of how many hostages Hamas is holding beyond today's list. At least 40 hostages are not in the hands of Hamas, Qatar has previously said. This includes 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage, and his family being held hostage in Gaza. The Bibas family — parents Yarden, 34, and Shiri, 32, along with four-year-old Ariel and Kfir were transferred to another Palestinian terror group in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed it is holding 30 hostages captive. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the transatlantic thinktank the Counter Extremism Project, told Sky News there was also a "well-developed smuggling economy" in Gaza. "So it's possible hostages are neither under the control of Hamas nor Islamic Jihad - but these crime organisations."