Fresh demands for Hamas to free youngest hostage

10-month-old baby still being held as 48-hour ceasefire extension agreed

- Jitendra Joshi

HAMAS today came under pressure to locate a 10-month-old baby and his family being held hostage in Gaza after a 48-hour extension to the ceasefire was agreed with Israel.

The pause in Israel's bloody offensive in Gaza was subject to renewal after the initial four days if both sides agreed, offering the territory's beleaguered Palestinian population some respite from weeks of Israeli bombardment. Ahmad Maghrabi, a surgeon in Gaza, said the two-day extension offered "hope inside the dark" with civilians able to relax and desperately-needed aid now coming into the coastal territory.

"I'm spending all my time inside the operative rooms. Every day I have 15 to 20 cases I'm doing. But I have seen some drugs arrive.

We were lacking everything, but now they have brought surgical supplies, disposables, everything," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Hamas has so far released 51 of the estimated 240 hostages it took during a terrorist rampage across southern Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead.