GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov  30, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Militant
group Hamas released two more Israeli women hostages on Thursday with more
Palestinian prisoners to be freed under an extended truce that has paused weeks
of deadly conflict.

With the current truce set to expire early Friday, international bodies
have called for a lasting halt to the violence, sparked by deadly Hamas attacks
on Israel that prompted it to mount a devastating assault on the Gaza Strip.

The delicate truce held through its seventh day after a 24-hour extension
despite a shooting claimed by Hamas militants that killed three people in
Jerusalem.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Israeli and Palestinian
leaders to seek a longer pause that would allow further prisoner-hostage
exchanges and more aid for displaced civilians in Gaza.

The Israeli military said on Thursday at least two women hostages had been
returned from Gaza after being released to the Red Cross by Hamas.

More were expected to be transferred "in the next few hours", it said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office named the two as
French-Israeli dual national Mia Shem, 21, and Amit Soussana, 40.

Israel is due to release more Palestinian prisoners in turn, after the
sides agreed to extend the pause in combat operations until Friday morning.

Only hours after the truce extension, the Islamist militants claimed
responsibility for a shooting in Jerusalem that killed three people and called
for an "escalation of the resistance".

The morning attack saw two gunmen from annexed east Jerusalem kill three
people and wound eight others at a bus stop in the western part of the city,
before two off-duty soldiers and civilians fired at them and "neutralised"
them, police said.

- Ten hostages per day -

Separately, two Israeli soldiers were slightly injured in a ramming attack
on a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the army said, adding
the assailant had also been "shot and neutralised".

International bodies have called for more time to allow medical supplies,
food and fuel into the besieged Gaza Strip after fierce combat and bombardments
sparked by Hamas's bloody October 7 attacks on Israel.
"We have seen over the last week the very positive development of hostages
coming home, being reunited with their families," Blinken said at a meeting
with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.

"It's also enabled an increase in humanitarian assistance to go to innocent
civilians in Gaza who need it desperately. So this process is producing
results. It's important, and we hope that it can continue."

Blinken later told Netanyahu it was "imperative" to protect civilians in
southern Gaza "before any military operations there".

The latest extended truce had been due to end at 0500 GMT Thursday, but the
Israeli army said the "operational pause" would continue as international
mediators negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Qatar, which has led the truce negotiations supported by Egypt and the
United States, confirmed the pause had been extended for one day "under the
same previous conditions".

Fighting began on October 7 when Hamas militants broke through Gaza's
militarised border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and
kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities.

In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed an air and
ground military campaign that the Hamas government says has killed more than
15,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians.

The truce agreement allows for extensions if Hamas can continue to release
10 hostages per day, but both sides have warned they are ready to return to
fighting.

Since the truce began on November 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed
in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.

At least 24 foreigners, most of them Thais living in Israel, have been
freed outside the terms of the deal.

Israel says it sees the truce as a temporary halt intended to free
hostages, but there are growing calls for a more sustained pause in fighting.

The hostage releases have brought joy tinged with agony, with families
anxiously waiting each night to learn if their loved ones will be freed, and
learning harrowing details from those who return.

Four-year-old Abigail was captured after crawling out from under the body
of her father, killed by militants, covered in his blood, her great aunt Liz
Hirsh Naftali said.

Before the truce Israeli ground and air forces had pounded Gaza, forcing an
estimated 1.7 million people -- around 80 percent of the Hamas-run territory's
population -- to leave their homes and limiting the entry of food, water,
medicine and fuel.

- 'Everything is gone' -

Conditions in Gaza remain "catastrophic" and the population faces a "high
risk of famine", according to the World Food Programme.

The truce has allowed some of the displaced to return to their homes, but
for many there is little left.

"I discovered that my house had been completely destroyed -- 27 years of my
life to build it and everything is gone," said Taghrid al-Najjar, 46, after
returning to her home in southeastern Gaza.

The violence in Gaza has also raised tensions in the West Bank, where
nearly 240 Palestinians have been killed by either Israeli soldiers or settlers
since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

That figure exceeds the entire toll in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for
all of last year when 235 people died, mostly Palestinians, an AFP tally showed.

In a sign of mounting international tensions over the conflict, Israel's
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said he was recalling the country's envoy in Madrid
over what he called "outrageous remarks" by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro
Sanchez.

Sanchez had said in a television interview he had "serious doubts" over the
legality of Israel's actions in Gaza.