Dozens of Palestinian and Israeli prisoners have been released in the first 48 hours of a four-day ceasefire that is also allowing vital supplies of aid and fuel into Gaza. Since Friday, Hamas has freed 26 Israelis and 15 foreign nationals and Israel has released almost 80 Palestinians under the terms of the agreement, which was brokered by Egyptian and Qatari negotiators during weeks of talks. Some 150 Palestinians, 50 Israelis, and an unknown number of foreign nationals will be freed during the truce, which expires on Tuesday morning. Almost all of those released have been women, children and the elderly.

A bump in the road: Day two of the hostage release didn’t go according to plan, getting held up for several hours following a dispute between the two sides. Egypt helped resolve the impasse, Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said.

The ceasefire has allowed critical aid into Gaza: The first two days of the ceasefire have allowed medical aid, food, water and fuel into Gaza after supply levels neared zero last week. Aid trucks have increased to around 200 per day, though this remains far below the 500 trucks that crossed the border before the war, with the Palestinian Red Crescent saying yesterday that it does “not even scratch the surface” of the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 mn population. Israel is also allowing 130k liters of fuel a day into the enclave yet this is still just over 10% of pre-war volumes.

An extended temporary truce could be in the cards: Egypt had received ‘positive signs’ of a one- or two-day extension on the ceasefire during intensive negotiations, which would also spell out the release of more hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, Rashwan said yesterday. Under the truce, Israel agreed to extend the ceasefire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released by Hamas.

The likelihood this will be anything other than temporary is remote: Israeli officials have been at pains to emphasize that the truce is temporary and that they will resume their devastating air and ground assault on Gaza in a few days. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reiterated his goal to completely destroy Hamas and said the IDF could continue the war for another two or three months.

Despite growing diplomatic pressure on Israel from allies: Officials from several European governments have used the lull in the fighting to intensify their criticism of Israel’s war, with the Spanish prime minister accusing it of indiscriminate violence and calling for a Palestinian state at a press conference at the Rafah crossing (watch, runtime: 17:35). In return, Israel accused Spain and Belgium — whose prime minister was also at the presser — of supporting terrorism. The UK has adopted a more critical tone, with the country’s new foreign secretary David Cameron calling the expulsion of Palestinians in the West Bank by extremist settlers “ completely unacceptable.”

El Sisi calls for demilitarized Palestinian state: A future Palestinian state could be demilitarized, with international forces temporarily in place to guarantee security for Egypt and Israel, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi told a press conference in Cairo on Friday, (watch, runtime: 17:35). “We said that we are ready for this state to be demilitarized, and there can also be guarantees of forces, whether Nato forces, UN forces, or Arab or American forces, until we achieve security for both states, the nascent Palestinian state and the Israeli state," he said, alongside the Spanish and Belgian prime ministers.

DIPLOMACY-Biden to El Sisi: No Gaza displacement “under any circumstances” | Arab and Islamic ministers push for permanent ceasefire in London and Paris.

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