TEL AVIV, February 24. /TASS/. Israel is ready to extend the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of more Israeli hostages who are still held in the enclave by the radicals, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said.

"We don’t rule out that the temporary ceasefire can be extended in exchange for the release of more hostages," he said during talks with his Romanian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Slovak, and Hungarian counterparts in Brussels.

"This won’t be done without the release of hostages. We have set a task of freeing our hostages and reaching our goals in the war [in the Gaza Strip]," the Israeli foreign ministry’s press service quoted him as saying.

According to the ministry, Sa’ar "held a series of bilateral meetings with foreign ministers from EU countries as part of his visit to Brussels to attend the highest forum for managing Israel-EU relations." "During these meetings, he raised the issue of the Iranian threat" and noted that "it is time to take measures to toughen the existing and impose new sanctions against Iran, which poses a threat to peace in the entire region," the ministry added.