GAZA: At least 30 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons late on Tuesday night, while Hamas also freed 12 more prisoners on the penultimate day of an extended sixday truce.

Al Jazeera TV broadcast live footage of a bus carrying Palestinian prisoners as it left Israel`s Ofer prison on its way to the West Bank city of Beitunia, while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that 10 Israelis and two foreigners includ-ing nine women and one child were released from Gaza.

With both sides expressing hope of further extensions, mediator Qatar hosted the spy chiefs from Israel`s Mossad and the US CIA at a meeting to `build on progress`, a source briefed on the visits told Reuters.

A single column of black smoke could be seen rising above the obliterated wasteland of the northern Gaza, but there was no sign of jets in the sky or the rumble of explosions.

The truce had brought thefirst respite to the Gaza Strip in seven weeks, with many using the opportunity to return to abandoned or destroyed homes.Among them was like Abu Shamaleh, who lost 37 members of his family. He was picking through the rubble of his flattened home in Khan Yunis, looking for anything still usable.

There was no machinery to excavate the body of a cousinstill buried in the ruins, he said.

Gaza health authorities say more than 15,000 people have been confirmed killed in Israel`s bombardment, around 40 per cent of them children, with many more dead feared to be lost under rubble.

The World Health Organisation, however, fears that more people could die from disease than from bombings in the Gaza Strip if its health system is not repaired, warning of a surge in infectious diseases and diarrhoea in children.WHO`s Margaret Harris described the collapse of Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza as a `tragedy` and voiced concern about the detention of its medical staff by Israeli forces. Nearly three quarters of hospitals, or 26 out of 36, have shut down entirely in Gaza due to bombings or lack of fuel, she added.

`Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than we are even seeing from the bombardment if we are not able to put back (together) this health system,` the WHO`s Margaret Harris told a UN briefing in Geneva.

`Everybody everywhere has dire health needs now because they`re starving because they lack clean water and (they`re) crowded together,` she said.

James Elder, a spokesperson from the Unicef in Gaza, told reporters that hospitals in the strip were full of children with burns and shrapnel wounds and gastroenteritis from drinking dirty water.

Citing a UN report on the living conditions of displaced residents in northern Gaza, Harris said: `(There are) no medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene and no food. We saw a very high number of cases of diarrhoea among infants,` she said.

CIA, Mossad chiefs meet Separately, leaders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israel`s Mossad met Qatar`s prime minister in Doha on Tuesday to build on the two-day extension of the Gaza truce, a source briefed on the visit said.

The meeting was `to buildon the progress of the extended humanitarian pause agreement and to initiate further discussions about the next phase of a potential deal,` the source told Reuters.

The talks, which were also attended by Egyptian officials, also reportedly included discussions on further prisonerreleases.

Qatar, where several political leaders of Hamas are based, has been leading negotiations between the group and Israel.

UN chief slams `collective punishment` Separately, in a statement issued to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that Palestinians were going through one of the darkest chapters of their history, adding, `We must be united in demanding an end to the occupation and the blockade of Gaza.

`I am horrified by the death and destruction that have engulfed the region, which is overwhelmed with pain, anguish, and heartache,` he said.

Referring to the Hamas raid of October 7, he said it `cannot justify` Israel`s col-lective punishment of Palestinian people` in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

The secretary-general reiterated his call for a long-term ceasefire and the release of captives held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons.

`I express my sincere condolences to the thousands of families who are mourning loved ones. This includes members of our own United Nations family killed in Gaza, representing the largest loss of personnel in the history of our organization.

Across the region, Guterres said the UNRWA was an indispensable lifeline, delivering vital support to millions of Palestinian refugees.

`It is more important than ever that the international community stands with UNRWA as a source of support for the Palestinian people,` he said.

`Above all, this is a day for reaffirming international solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to live in peace and dignity.` He called for unrestricted access to lifesaving aid, the release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, and an end to violations of international humanitarian law.-Agencies