NEW YORK, November 29. /TASS/. Supporters of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas and their allies are still holding at least 161 hostages in the Gaza Strip, an official for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in an interview with CNN.

According to the official, there are 146 Israelis, including many with dual citizenship, among the hostages, and the remaining 15 are foreigners. At least eight hostages are under the age of not 19, whereas at least ten are over 75.

Earlier on Wednesday, British newspaper The Times reported citing sources that at the Doha talks, Israeli representatives announced their readiness to extend the Gaza ceasefire for three more days. However, they will do so only under the condition that all the Israeli female hostages, who are not in military service, and Israeli children held by Hamas are released. According to Tel Aviv, Hamas and other groups seized about 100 Israeli women and children during their October 7 attack.

CIA Director William Burns, Israel’s Mossad Director David Barnea and Qatari representatives with close ties to the Hamas political leadership are in Qatar now.

On November 22, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip. Under the deal, 50 women and children under the age of 19 held hostage in the enclave are to be released in return for the release of 150 women and children under the age of 19 from Israeli prisons. The deal came into effect on November 24 at 7:00 a.m. local time (5:00 a.m. GMT), and later in the day the first group of hostages was released.

On November 27, Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesman Majed bin Muhammad al-Ansari said that Israel and Hamas, through mediators, had struck a deal to extend the humanitarian truce in Gaza for two more days. On the same day, Taher al-Nunu, adviser to Hamas’ political bureau chairman Ismail Haniyeh, told TASS that the new deal with Israel would have the same conditions. They are as follows: three Palestinian captives would be released daily until November 30 in return for each freed Israeli hostage. Initially, the agreement provided for the possibility of extending the humanitarian pause by 24 hours for the release of each extra group of ten hostages.