Hopes rise for extended ceasefire after Hamas frees Abigail, 4-year-old girl, more hostages

Hamas handed over a third group of hostages to Red Cross staff on Sunday as part of a four-day ceasefire agreement in the Gaza war, raising hopes of an extended truce with the release of further hostages in the coming days.

With the release of 14 Israelis and three Thai citizens on Sunday, a total of 58 hostages have now been released by the extremist organisation, Hamas, since Friday.

This is as a four-year-old American girl, Abigail Mor Edan, released by the Islamist group Hamas has touched the hearts of many people across the world.

Before being kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip, the little girl witnessed the murder of both her parents.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that on Oct. 7, the then three-year-old was at home with her two siblings, aged 10 and 6, in a kibbutz on the border with the Gaza Strip when Hamas terrorists invaded.

The two older children survived because they hid in a closet, where they held out for 14 hours before being rescued.

A gunman shot the children’s mother, and as her father lay protectively over Abigail, he too was shot dead.

Abigail, who was initially presumed dead, crawled out from under her father’s body and ran to a neighbour’s house, the Washington Post quoted a relative of the girl as saying.

The terrorists seized the girl, together with the family of five who were there and took them to the Gaza Strip with many other civilians.

Last Friday, the little girl turned four years old in captivity.

“What she endured is unthinkable,” U.S. President Joe Biden said, after the girl was released on Sunday – the first U.S. citizen among the hostages freed in the agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Abigail “has been through terrible trauma,” said Biden.

“What a joy it is to see her with us, but on the other hand it is also sad that she is returning to a reality in which she has no parents,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

“She has no parents, but she has an entire nation that hugs her, and we will take care of all her needs,” Netanyahu said.

Abigail’s great-aunt, Liz Hirsh Naftali, said in a statement on Sunday after the girl had been released that they had “no words to express our relief and gratitude,” according to the Washington Post.

The little girl will be reunited with her siblings and live with her aunt, uncle and grandparents in Israel, a relative was further quoted as saying.

Since Friday, 58 of the approximately 240 hostages have been released from Hamas control.

Another 10 hostages are expected to be released this Monday.

Israeli officials believe nearly 180 hostages are still in the hands of extremists in Gaza after being kidnapped in the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

On Sunday, in return for the 17 freed hostages, another 39 Palestinian prisoners were being released from Israeli prisons, as was the case the day before.

The exchange is part of the Qatar-brokered agreement on a four-day ceasefire, which is to last until at least Tuesday morning.

Officials on both sides of the conflict, as well as in the U.S. and Qatar, have expressed hopes for an extended truce beyond the originally agreed four days.

Following the release of a third group of hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that the agreement provides for the possibility of an extension in return for the release of 10 more hostages per day.

According to Qatar, an extension of an additional six days would be possible.

A Hamas statement late on Sunday said it also wished to extend the four-day ceasefire in hope of securing the release of further Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages.

While Netanyahu said an extension “would be welcome,” he also said the fighting would resume after the ceasefire.

“At the end of the outline, we will go to realizing our goals with full force.”

Among the hostages released by Hamas on Sunday evening was an 84-year-old woman who was brought to an Israeli hospital in a life-threatening condition, several Israeli media reported, citing the hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel.

The third day of the truce agreement has allowed some desperately needed aid to flow into the densely populated Gaza Strip.

The north of the territory saw the largest delivery of its kind since the beginning of the war between Islamist Hamas and Israel.

The Palestinian Red Crescent successfully drove the trucks there, the aid group said on Saturday night.

People are to be given water, medicine and medical equipment at four distribution points in the north, the group said.