Extended Gaza truce enters 5th day with more releases due

BBC update:

THE temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has entered its fifth day after a 48-hour extension was agreed.

Three Palestinians will be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for each Israeli hostage returned from Gaza.

Hamas says it is not holding all of the captives in the Gaza Strip, which could complicate efforts to free the most vulnerable.

The United Nations has used the pause in fighting to get aid into Gaza, but says much more is needed.

Hamas’s attacks on 7 October killed 1,200 people, with about 240 taken hostage.

Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 14,500 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign.

Peace with Hamas 'impossible' - former Israeli ambassador

Peace and Hamas "don't go together", says Mark Regev, Israel's former ambassador to the UK.

"It is impossible to have peace with Hamas and they have said so publicly," Regev told BBC's Newshour programme on Monday evening.

He was likely referring to a comment earlier this month from Taher El-Nounou, a Hamas media adviser - he told the New York Times that the group hopes war with Israel "will become permanent on all the borders".

"And that's why the Israeli public is 100% united in saying we refuse to live any longer next to this terror enclave on our southern border. And we have to talk about a future without Hamas," Regev said.

When asked if Israel will support rebuilding in the Gaza Strip, which has been extensively destroyed by Israel's retaliatory bombing, Regev said his country's budget is focused on rebuilding communities in southern Israel.

He added that he expects that many international partners will be willing to finance Gaza's rebuilding efforts.

"It doesn't have to be Israeli money... This is not a war that we started or that we wanted, as you know. Hamas bears responsibility for the outbreak of hostilities," he said.