Seventeen hostages held for weeks in the Gaza Strip by Hamas were freed Saturday night after a long wait due to last-minute complications in negotiations. Israel, for its part, released 39 Palestinian prisoners. This is the second day of a four-day, extendable truce between Hamas and the Israeli army, reached after mediation by Qatar, the United States and Egypt. The Israeli bombings ceased since Friday morning and so did the rocket attacks by the Islamist movement towards Israel.
A video released by the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist movement, shows 13 Israeli and four Thai hostages boarding vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) shortly before midnight. The convoy then crossed into Egypt through the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, and the hostages were then transferred to Israel.
Among the freed hostages is Maya Regev, 21, kidnapped along with her brother, 18, while trying to flee the Tribe of Nova music festival, attacked by Hamas fighters in the early hours of October 7. A video posted on social media showed them tied in the back of a truck at that time. «I am very happy that Maya is about to join us. However, I am heartbroken because my son Itay remains a Hamas prisoner in Gaza,” her mother Mirit said in a statement released by the Hostage Families Forum. In total, Hamas killed 364 people during the attack on the Tribe of Nova, which later became one of the symbols of the massacre in Israel.
Emily, a nine-year-old Israeli-Irish girl, is also part of the group of 17 people released, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced, calling the day “a day of immense joy and relief.” Four German-Israelis who had been kidnapped also returned to Israel on Saturday, said German diplomat Annalena Baerbock, expressing her “relief.” Four other German-Israelis had also been released on Friday.
The 17 people released “were subjected to an initial medical evaluation,” the Israeli army said in a statement. One of them was hospitalized and the others were reunited with their families. In Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of protesters gathered Saturday afternoon in Hostage Square, where they called for the full release of those held captive.
The release of this second group of hostages was delayed several hours on Saturday due to a dispute between Hamas and Israel over compliance with the agreement, but the Qatari government announced that the obstacles had been overcome. Late Saturday night, Israel announced on its side the release of a second group of 39 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children under 19 years of age.
In the West Bank, convoys of vehicles flying the flags of Palestinian movements led by Hamas paraded through the streets while escorting a Red Cross bus carrying freed prisoners. In East Jerusalem the celebrations were more discreet. Members of the Israeli security forces, armed and wearing helmets, surrounded in large numbers the home of Israa Jaabis, 39, the most recognized prisoner on the list.
His photograph with withered fingers and partially burned face in an Israeli court regularly appears at demonstrations, or to illustrate the suffering of Palestinian prisoners. “I am ashamed to speak of joy when all of Palestine is hurt,” Jaabis told reporters alongside his 13-year-old son Moatassem. “They must release everyone,” he requested. Jaabis was sentenced to eleven years in prison for detonating a gas cylinder she was carrying in the trunk of her vehicle during a traffic stop in 2015, injuring a police officer. Also in the West Bank, six Palestinians were killed on Saturday in several incidents with the Israeli army, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Since October 7, some 230 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank.
The agreement provides for four days of truce that should allow the release of 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners. On Friday, the first 13 Israeli hostages, women and children, were released by Hamas, in addition to ten Thais and one Filipino who was not part of the agreement. In exchange, Israel released a first group of 39 Palestinian detainees.
It also includes humanitarian and fuel entry into Gaza. A total of 248 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday, 61 of which carried water, food and medical supplies to the north of the territory, according to the UN. The military considers the northern third of the Gaza Strip, where Gaza City is located, to be a combat zone that houses Hamas’ infrastructure center. He ordered the population to leave that area and prevents them from returning.
Despite the warning, thousands of displaced people in Gaza took advantage of the pause in fighting to try to return to their homes in the north. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, seven of these returnees were wounded by Israeli fire on Saturday. Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi warned that the war was not over. «We will start attacking Gaza again as soon as the truce ends […] to dismantle Hamas and create enormous pressure in order to quickly bring back as many hostages as possible, every last one of them,” he said.
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