DThe release of hostages from the Gaza Strip agreed between Israel and the Islamist Hamas is apparently being delayed. According to consistent Israeli media reports, it is unlikely to take place before Friday. The newspaper Haaretz, the TV station N12 and the Times of Israel cited statements by Israel’s security advisor Tzachi Hanegbi. Hamas had declared the day before that the agreed break in fighting should begin on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. CET. Accordingly, the first exchange of hostages kidnapped in Israel for Palestinian prisoners was expected on the same day. Meanwhile, according to the Israeli army, there was another rocket alarm in the border area on Thursday morning.
Army spokesman: Repatriation of the hostages may take time
“Talks about the release of our hostages are progressing and will continue on an ongoing basis,” Hanegbi was quoted as saying on Wednesday evening. The Times of Israel quoted Hanegbi as saying: “The release will begin in accordance with the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday.” The Israeli military is preparing to implement the first phase of the agreement, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday evening. However, the repatriation of people abducted to the sealed-off coastal strip could take time and take place in several stages.
According to the Times of Israel, an Israeli official explained the delay by saying that, contrary to the Israeli side’s previous view, both Israel and the Islamist Hamas must first sign a document ratifying the agreement in order for it to come into force. The document will hopefully be signed within the next 24 hours so that the first hostages can be released on Friday. The “Jerusalem Post” spoke of a “last-minute complication.”
Both sides had previously agreed on a maximum ten-day ceasefire in Israel and the Gaza Strip. Part of the agreement is an exchange of up to 100 hostages from Israel for up to 300 Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons.
Israel’s air force strikes Hezbollah
The Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, which is linked to Hamas and is also hostile to Israel and has repeatedly engaged in violent clashes with Israel’s military since the beginning of the Gaza war almost seven weeks ago, is not part of the agreement, according to the “Jerusalem Post”. The incidents on the border with Lebanon, which threaten to escalate, have no influence on this. Meanwhile, Israel said it attacked pro-Iranian militia targets in Lebanon on Thursday night.
Security circles: Elite members of Hezbollah killed
The Israeli military reported that warplanes had attacked Shiite militia infrastructure. Hezbollah announced that at least five of its members had been killed. Among them is the son of the chairman of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc in the Lebanese parliament, Mohamed Raad. As the German Press Agency learned from Lebanese security circles, they were members of Hezbollah’s elite brigade, Al Radwan. Accordingly, a house in the village of Beit Yahoun in southern Lebanon was hit.
There are concerns that the Gaza war could spread to Lebanon. Hezbollah is considered more influential and significantly more powerful than Hamas. Hezbollah is also considered Iran’s most important non-state ally and is part of the self-proclaimed “Axis of Resistance”, a front of militias with the aim of fighting Iran’s arch-enemy Israel.
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