Majid Al-Ansari, spokesman for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed his country’s hope to extend the truce between Israel and Hamas beyond the agreed upon four days.

Al-Ansari said in statements reported by the Arab World News Agency on the American CNN network today (Sunday): “What we hope for is that the momentum achieved by the releases during the two days and this four-day (truce) agreement will allow us to extend the truce and then entering into more serious discussions regarding the remaining hostages.”

He added that he continues to work with senior officials in Qatar, in order to address concerns on the part of both parties to the conflict, regarding the implementation of the prisoner and hostage exchange agreement.

He continued: “In this type of mediation, you always find each side saying that the other side did not adhere to the agreement.”

Al-Ansari stressed that he could not confirm whether any of the Americans would be released on the third day of the truce.

He said: “These lists (of those to be released) are delivered on a daily basis. We are now waiting for the list for the third day. Unfortunately, we cannot know in advance who will be on the list.”

Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said in a press conference yesterday (Saturday) that the movement is keen on the success of the truce agreement as long as Israel is committed to it. Pointing out that this did not happen.

Egypt, which controls the Rafah border crossing through which vital aid was resumed to the Gaza Strip under the truce agreement, announced yesterday (Saturday) that it had received “positive indicators” from all parties regarding the possibility of extending the truce in Gaza for a day or two.