And joining us now is Brian Coutoulos, who's a senior fellow and vice president of policy at the Middle East Institute.

He was formerly a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focused on U.S. national security policy in the Middle East and South Asia.

He lived and worked in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Egypt, and was a Fulbright scholar in Amman, Jordan, where he conducted research on the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.

An Arabic speaker, he's the co-author of The Prosperity Agenda.

Welcome to Background Briefing, Brian Kutoulas.

Thanks for having me on.

Well, thanks to joining us, Brian, and Israel and Hamas have agreed to extend their ceasefire for two more days past Monday,

according to the Qatari government, have been actively brokering these deals.

And is there a possibility that it could continue on,

even despite the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear

that he will resume operations

will quote the full force as soon as the current deal expires. But as they buy more days

and get more people out, how do you see this going forward? I think they could get some more hostages

out in a few more days of a ceasefire, but I think the

long-term prospects don't look optimistic. And it's not just because of Prime Minister Netanyahu

and Israel, but also if you look at the positions of groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad,

what I think we may be seen is a temporary

respite because you basically have two different actors, the Israeli government, and then the

Hamas group, along with some of its partners in Gaza, who are fundamentally at odds. And as devastating as the war has been and how many of us want to see this come to an end,

unfortunately, the parties to the conflict have expressed positions that don't seem like

they're going to be dealt with in a diplomatic forum and looks quite likely will go back to some form of conflict and violence,

unfortunately. So so far 58 hostages have been released, including 39 Israelis. How many more do you

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