Hamas handed over 13 Israeli hostages and four foreigners to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday night, Qatar’s foreign ministry said, after a brief disruption earlier to the deal to free captives was overcome with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt. The Gaza hostage deal was back on track after a temporary delay over a dispute about aid supplies to the north of the besieged enclave. “13 Israelis and 4 foreigners were received by ICRC and on their way to Rafah,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed Al Ansari, said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. TV images showed Red Cross vehicles at Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. A Palestinian official familiar with the diplomacy said Hamas would continue with the four-day truce agreed with Israel, the first break in fighting in seven weeks of war. Al Ansari earlier said a brief delay and obstacle to the hostage release were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides, adding that 39 Palestinian civilians were going to be released in exchange. Among the Israeli hostages, eight were expected to be children and five others women, Al Ansari said, while the Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons would consist of 33 children and six women.
Quick Read
- Hostage Release: Hamas released 13 Israelis and four foreigners in a recent exchange, part of a cease-fire deal. The released hostages, including four Thais, were transferred to Egypt and then to Israel.
- Delayed Exchange and Accusations: The exchange was initially delayed by Hamas, citing violations by Israel of the truce terms. They claimed that the aid deliveries allowed by Israel were insufficient, particularly in northern Gaza, the main combat zone.
- Further Releases and International Mediation: Israel was set to release 39 Palestinians as part of the deal. The delay was resolved after international mediation, with Hamas listing the expected release of six women and 33 teenage boys by Israel. Among those to be released were Maysoun Jabali and Israa Jaabis, imprisoned since 2015.
- Uncertainty and Optimism: Despite the uncertainty about some exchange details, there was optimism amid scenes of family reunions.
- Earlier Releases and Cease-Fire Terms: During the first day of the cease-fire, Hamas released 24 hostages, and Israel freed 39 Palestinians. The truce involves the release of at least 50 Israeli hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners over four days. The truce could be extended based on additional releases.
- U.S. and Qatari Involvement: U.S. President Joe Biden expressed hope for an extension of the truce. A Qatari delegation visited Israel to ensure smooth continuation of the deal.
- Impact of the Pause in Fighting: The pause allowed Palestinians to return to the streets and begin recovering from the damage. Aid deliveries were scaled up, providing much-needed relief.
- Emotional Scenes and Preparations: In Tel Aviv, people gathered for news of the releases, while in the West Bank, families prepared for the return of their loved ones.
- Released Individuals’ Conditions: The first group of freed Israelis were in good condition, while the freed Palestinians included women and teenagers.
- Broader Context of the War: The war, which saw significant casualties and damage, was triggered by a Hamas attack. Israeli leaders have stated their aim to continue military operations until Hamas is subdued, while families of hostages press for their release.
- Casualty Figures: The Israeli offensive has resulted in over 13,300 Palestinian deaths, with women and minors making up a significant portion of the casualties.
The Associated Press has the story:
Hostages released by Hamas have returned to Israel, Israeli military says
Newslooks- KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP)
Hamas released 13 Israelis and four foreigners late Saturday in the second round of swaps under a cease-fire deal, the Israeli military said, after the militant group initially delayed the exchange for several hours and claimed that Israel had violated the terms of a truce deal.
Shortly after midnight, the Israeli military said the released hostages, including four Thais, had been transferred to Israel. They were being taken to hospitals for observation and to be reunited with their families.
Israel was to free 39 Palestinians later Saturday as part of the deal that ultimately went through after international mediation efforts.
The Israeli hostages released Saturday by Hamas included seven children and six women, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced. Most of the released hostages were from Kibbutz Be’eri, a community Hamas militants ravaged during their Oct. 7 cross-border attack, a spokesperson for the kibbutz said. The children ranged in age from 3 to 16, and the women ranged from 18 to 67.
It was a bittersweet moment for the residents of Be’eri. A kibbutz spokesperson said all the released hostages either had a family member killed in the Oct. 7 rampage or had left a loved one in captivity in Gaza.
The mother of one of the released hostages, 12-year-old Hila Rotem, remained in captivity, the spokesperson said.
Another, Emily Hand, is a girl whose father believed her to be dead for weeks before finding out she was held as a hostage.
The last-minute delay had created a tense standoff on the second day of what’s meant to be a four-day cease-fire. By nightfall, as the hostages should have emerged from Gaza, Hamas alleged that the aid deliveries permitted by Israel fell short of what was promised and that not enough of it was reaching northern Gaza — the focus of Israel’s ground offensive and main combat zone. Hamas also said not enough veteran prisoners were freed in the first swap on Friday.
“This is putting the deal in danger,” Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in Beirut. But Egypt, Qatar and Hamas itself later said obstacles had been overcome, and Hamas listed six women and 33 teenage boys it said were expected to be released by the Israelis. Two women, Maysoun Jabali and Israa Jaabis, were imprisoned in 2015 after being convicted of carrying out attacks on Israelis. Jaabis suffered severe burns during the incident.
While uncertainty around some details of the exchange remained, there was some optimism, too, amid earlier scenes of joyous families reuniting on both sides.
On the first day of the cease-fire, Hamas released 24 of the roughly 240 hostages taken during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war, and Israel freed 39 Palestinians from prison. Those freed in Gaza were 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and a Filipino.
Overall, Hamas is to release at least 50 Israeli hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners, during the four-day truce — all women and minors.
Israel has said the truce can be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed — something U.S. President Joe Biden said he hoped would occur.
Separately, a Qatari delegation arrived in Israel on Saturday to coordinate with parties on the ground and “ensure the deal continues to move smoothly,” according to a diplomat briefed on the visit. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details with the media.
The start of the pause brought quiet for 2.3 million Palestinians reeling from relentless Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands, driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and leveled residential areas. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel also went silent.
War-weary Palestinians in northern Gaza returned to the streets, crunching over rubble between shattered buildings and at times digging through it with bare hands. At the Indonesian hospital in Jabaliya, besieged by the Israeli military earlier this month, bodies lay in the courtyard and outside the main gate.
For Emad Abu Hajer, a resident of the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza City area, the pause meant he could again search through the remains of his home, which was flattened in an Israeli attack last week.
He found the bodies of a cousin and nephew, bringing the death toll in the attack to 19. His sister and two other relatives are still missing.
“We want to find them and bury them in dignity,” he said.
The United Nations said the pause enabled it to scale up the delivery of food, water, and medicine to the largest volume since the resumption of aid convoys on Oct. 21. It was also able to deliver 129,000 liters (34,078 gallons) of fuel — just over 10% of the daily pre-war volume — as well as cooking gas, a first since the war began.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, a long line of people with containers waited outside a filling station. Hossam Fayad lamented that the pause in fighting was only for four days.
“I wish it could be extended until people’s conditions improved,” he said.
For the first time in over a month, aid reached northern Gaza. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 61 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies headed there on Saturday, the largest aid convoy to reach the area yet. The U.N. said it and the Palestinian Red Crescent were also able to evacuate 40 patients and family members from a hospital in Gaza City to a hospital in Khan Younis.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the hold-up over the hostage deal, Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said. About 3-1/2 hours after their call, the White House learned from the Qataris that the agreement was back on and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was moving to collect the hostages, Watson added.
The armed wing of Hamas had earlier said it was delaying Saturday’s scheduled second round of hostage releases until Israel met all truce conditions, including committing to let aid trucks into northern Gaza.
Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan said only 65 of 340 aid trucks that had entered Gaza since Friday had reached northern Gaza, which was “less than half of what Israel agreed on.”
Al-Qassam Brigades also said Israel had failed to respect the terms of the Palestinian prisoner releases. Qadura Fares, the Palestinian commissioner for prisoners, said Israel had not released detainees by seniority, as was expected.
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, told Channel 13 News that Israel was “abiding by the deal” with Hamas that Qatar had mediated.
Israel has said 50 trucks with food, water, shelter equipment and medical supplies had deployed to northern Gaza under UN supervision, the first significant aid delivery there since the start of the war.
The brief dispute over the truce raised concerns over the smooth implementation of the hostage deal after 13 Israeli women and children were freed by Hamas on Friday. Some 39 Palestinian women and teenagers were released from Israeli jails.
Israeli army spokesperson Olivier Rafowicz told French television Israel was strictly honouring the terms of the truce, and said the military had carried out no attacks or offensive operations in Gaza on Saturday.
TRUCE EXTENDED?
A total of 50 hostages are to be exchanged for 150 Palestinian prisoners over four days under the truce, the first halt in fighting since Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.
In response to that attack, Israel has vowed to destroy the Hamas militants who run Gaza, raining bombs and shells on the enclave and launching a ground offensive in the north. To date, some 14,800 people, roughly 40% of them children, have been killed, Palestinian health authorities said on Saturday.
Before the delay to the latest hostage and prisoner exchange, Egypt, which controls the Rafah border crossing through which aid supplies have resumed into southern Gaza, said it had received “positive signals” from all parties over a possible truce extension.
Israel has said the ceasefire could be extended if Hamas continues to release hostages at a rate of at least 10 per day. A Palestinian source has said up to 100 hostages could go free.
DANCING FOR JOY
The short-lived row over the truce accord’s implementation contrasted with scenes of joy earlier in the day as hostages were reunited with their families.
After almost 50 days in captivity in Gaza, nine-year-old Ohad Munder ran down a hospital corridor in Israel into his father’s arms, footage released by the hospital showed.
He and three other children released at the same time were in relatively good condition, Gilat Livni, the centre’s Director of Paediatrics told reporters.
“They shared experiences, we were up with them until late at night and it was interesting, upsetting and moving,” said Livni.
“I dreamt we came home,” said another hostage, four-year-old Raz Asher, as she sat in her father’s arms on a hospital bed after she and her mother and younger sister were freed. “Now the dream came true,” her father, Yoni, replied.
For Palestinians, however, joy at the release of prisoners from Israeli jails had a bitter tinge to it. Israeli police were seen raiding the home of Sawsan Bkeer on Friday shortly before her daughter Marah, 24, was released. Israeli police declined to comment.
“There is no real joy, even this little joy we feel as we wait,” said Sawsan Bkeer. “We are still afraid to feel happy,” she said.
JOY AND EXPECTATION
In Tel Aviv, several thousand people packed a central square called “the square of the hostages,” awaiting news of the second release.
“Don’t forget the others because it’s getting harder, harder and harder. It’s heartbreaking,” said Neri Gershon, a Tel Aviv resident. Some families have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of not doing enough to bring hostages home.
In the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank, the family of 16-year-old Wael Mesheh was frantically getting the house ready for his homecoming as part of the second swap. “We are going to hug him so tight,” his mother, Hanadi Mesheh, said by phone.
The first group of freed Israelis included nine women and four children ages 9 and under. They were taken to Israeli hospitals for observation and were declared to be in good condition.
Hours later, 24 Palestinian women and 15 teenage boys held in Israeli prisons in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem were freed. The teenagers had been jailed for minor offenses like throwing stones. The women included several convicted of trying to stab Israeli soldiers.
“It’s a happiness tainted with sorrow because our release from prison came at the cost of the lives of martyrs and the innocence of children,” said one released prisoner, Aseel Munir al-Titi.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, Israel is holding 7,200 Palestinians, including about 2,000 arrested since the start of the war.
On Saturday, at least two Palestinians were injured at a tense West Bank checkpoint where Israel was to free prisoners. Israeli security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians gathered at Beitunia checkpoint. It was not clear how the two were injured.
A LONGER PEACE?
The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking scores of hostages, including babies, women and older adults, as well as soldiers.
“We will return immediately at the end of the cease-fire to attacking in Gaza, operating in Gaza,” Herzi Halevi, Israeli chief of staff, told soldiers.
Israeli leaders have said they won’t stop until Hamas, which has controlled Gaza for the past 16 years, is crushed. Israeli officials have argued that only military pressure can bring the hostages home. But the government is under pressure from hostages’ families to prioritize the release of the remaining captives.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza government. Women and minors have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead. The figure does not include updated numbers from hospitals in the north, where communications have broken down.
