A truce does not mean the end of the war, although it is the first step. After 46 days of extreme violence, with 1,200 Israelis and more than 14,000 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians on both sides of the separation fence, Hamas and Israel were at press time on the verge of agreeing to a temporary cessation of the hostilities in Gaza. The information in recent days about the imminence of a ceasefire gained strength as the hours passed and the families of the 240 hostages and missing people held their breath waiting to know the names of the first to be released. The relatives demonstrated at the doors of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv to pressure with all their soul those who had to vote on a final decision that was long overdue due to the opposition of the ultranationalist ministers.
Sources close to this delicate process, which has moved forward thanks to the mediation of Qatar, indicated that Hamas will release fifty children and women β forty children and thirteen mothers β that it has had in its possession since October 7, in exchange for more than 150 Palestinian women and teenagers imprisoned in Israel, as well as a lull in fighting that would last about five days. There is a possibility that another thirty captives could be released if the ceasefire is prolonged. As always when a release occurs, the families of victims of prisoners with blood crimes have twenty-four hours to appeal any exchange.
Additionally, Hamas can unilaterally release those among the hostages who have Thai citizenship. It is also possible that other governments will reach other agreements for their citizens held in Gaza.
In a briefing with journalists cited by Barak David of Axios, a senior Israeli official close to the process explained that there was consensus for this agreement between the Shin Bet, the army, Mossad and members of the war cabinet, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. This same source said that the release of hostages by Hamas will be carried out in groups during the four days after the ceasefire comes into effect and will affect captives who are Israeli or have dual citizenship. If there are foreign citizens, it will be a measure that Hamas adopts unilaterally. The army would also have accepted Hamas’ demand to stop the flight of its drones over Gaza for six hours during the days of the truce because it would have other alternative systems to avoid losing surveillance.
Where the prime minister encountered opposition was among ultra-nationalist Zionist members of his cabinet such as Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security, who said that “the army must continue fighting until Hamas submits to our conditions.” Ben Gvir and his coalition partners were already rebuked on Monday by the families of the captives who asked them to “stop talking about killing Arabs and start talking about saving Jews.” Netanyahu wanted to reassure his most radical ministers. “We are at war and we will remain at war,” he stated.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will play a key role in the operation since it is in contact with the two parties in conflict and with the agreement closed it will be the body in charge of transporting those released to their loved ones, something that already It happened with the four women released so far by Hamas. Netanyahu explained that those captives who are not released in this first truce will receive a visit from the ICRC to check their health.
Those released will be taken to six health centers in Israel, where, isolated from the rest of the patients and the media, they will be examined. For this purpose, special complexes have been set up at the Sheba Tel Hashomer, Soroka, Assaf Harofeh, Wolfson, Ichilov and Schneider children’s hospitals, the latter specializing in the physical and mental treatment of children.
The facilities will be closed to the arrival of visitors and health system workers, except for the relatives of the kidnapped, the security forces and the medical bodies that treat them.
Attacks on hospitals
As is usual in these cases, the hours before consummating the agreement were marked by extreme violence. Israel directly attacked the hospitals in Indonesia and Al-Awda with the aim of destroying the medical centers in the north of the Strip and achieved its objective. The Red Crescent denounced the death of three doctors in Al-Awda, including Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Ahmad al.Sahar, from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), as a result of the bombings against this center in which there was the only maternity hospital. It was in the northern area.
From the Indonesian hospital they managed to evacuate one hundred wounded to the south, but there are another 500 waiting to be transferred in the coming days. Hamas also launched a rocket attack toward Tel Aviv around the time the war cabinet meeting began.
The entry into force of a truce will not mean major changes in northern Gaza, where the army has made clear that it will not allow the return of civilians who have left their homes. The armed forces’ plans are to concentrate the Gazan population around the small area of ββAl-Mawasi, on the southern coast.
The truces in Gaza are a moment of respite for the civilian population after weeks of bombing, but they also constitute pauses in which both sides reorganize, rearm and find new ways to strike the enemy. The war is on hold, but it is still alive and army spokesman Daniel Hagari insisted that it will be long and hard and that “now the goal is to bring our people home safely.”
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