Hamas releases 2 female hostages as ceasefire extends to a 7th day: Full coverage of Israel-Hamas war

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday he doesn't think that efforts to extend the truce between Israel and Hamas beyond a seventh day will be affected by a Jerusalem bus stop shooting that killed three people. Hamas said the attackers were members of its military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades.

“I don’t think there’s been any affect — not that I’ve heard or seen — any affect on the extending of the deal by the violence in Jerusalem," Kirby told reporters on Thursday.

He said that while the U.S. doesn't support a permanent ceasefire right now, it will continue to be an advocate for a truce extension.

"Again, we do not support a permanent ceasefire at this time. We do support humanitarian pauses and we would love to see as I said at the outset, we want to see this seven-day pause turn into eight, nine, ten and beyond," Kirby said. "But ultimately that’s going to take Israel and Hamas to agree to the parameters of extending that deal."

Fears were raised Wednesday for the youngest hostage held in the Gaza Strip after Hamas claimed that 10-month-old Kfir Bibas had been killed alongside his brother and mother.

Israel's military said it was assessing the claim, while relatives said they were "waiting for the news to be confirmed or hopefully refuted soon" about the family members, who have become leading faces of the hostage crisis.

Hamas said the attackers behind a Jerusalem bus stop shooting that killed three people on Thursday were members of its military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades.

Seven people were also injured after the two attackers, identified by Hamas as two brothers, opened fire on a group of people in Jerusalem, authorities said.

The shooting in Jerusalem comes amid a truce between Israel and Hamas which has seen a pause in the fighting and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Two women have returned to Israel after being handed to the Red Cross in Gaza City, Israeli authorities said on Thursday, and further hostages are expected to be released later in the evening, following a last-minute deal struck earlier with Hamas.

Israel named the freed hostages as 21-year-old Mia Schem, who was seized at a dance party along with many of the other hostages abducted into Gaza, and 40-year-old Amit Soussana. Schem also holds French nationality.

The U.S. Department of Education added Harvard University and the New York City Department of Education to a growing list of universities and school districts that are being investigated over alleged incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel.

The announcement comes just days before Harvard president Claudine Gay is scheduled to testify before Congress at a hearing on antisemitism on campus, along with MIT president Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill.

The hearing, which is set for Tuesday, will be held by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

There have been hundreds of protests and counterprotests on these campuses, with some of them turning violent. The faces and names of some students allegedly linked to anti-Israel statements were displayed on mobile billboards last month near the Harvard campus.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan told lawmakers this week that the White House is not seeking to place conditions on U.S. military assistance to Israel, days after President Biden signaled openness to the notion that was being pushed by some Democrats as the civilian death toll in Gaza from Israel's war against Hamas climbed.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who was among the senators who met privately with Sullivan on Tuesday, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Sullivan "made it clear that the White House is not asking for any conditionality in aid. So I want to leave that very clear.” A second person directly familiar with the meeting confirmed the account.

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed to extend a temporary truce by another day minutes before it was set to expire, said Qatar, which has been mediating between the two sides. Negotiations on extending it came down to the wire, with last-minute disagreements over the hostages to be freed by Hamas in exchange for another day of a halt in fighting.

Word of the extension came just as the truce was to expire at 7 a.m. local time Thursday. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said the truce was being extended under the same terms as in the past, under which Hamas has released 10 Israeli hostages per day in exchange for the release of 30 Palestinian prisoners.

The announcement followed a last-minute standoff earlier Thursday, with Hamas saying Israel had rejected a proposed list that included seven living captives and the remains of three who the group said were killed in previous Israeli airstrikes. Israel later said Hamas submitted an improved list, paving the way for the extension.