A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas got back on track on Sunday when the insurgents released 17 more hostages, including 14 Israelis, in the third release under a four-day truce.
Red Cross representatives removed the hostages from Gaza. Some were handed over directly to Israel, while others left via Egypt. One person was airlifted directly to an Israeli hospital, the Israeli military said.
The Israeli hostages range in age from 4 to 84, including Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old Israeli-American girl whose parents were killed in the Hamas attack that began the war on October 7. It was.
The list included nine children under the age of 17, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
US President Joe Biden said Abigail’s mother was killed in her home in Kfar Azha Kibbutz. She said the girl “ran to her father, but as her father also put his body on the line to protect little Abigail, she was shot.”
Biden told reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts, that the latest group of freed hostages was scheduled to cross from Gaza to Egypt, but instead went directly to Israel to transport an elderly non-American woman who was “critically ill.” said. hospital.
Separately, Hamas announced that it had released one of its Russian hostages “in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin” and as an expression of gratitude for the Russian government’s stance on the war. . Israeli military radio reported that the man had dual Israeli and Russian citizenship.
Israel was scheduled to release 39 Palestinian prisoners later Sunday as part of the deal.
A fourth exchange is scheduled for Monday, the last day of the ceasefire, during which a total of 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released. All are women and minors.
International mediators led by the United States and Qatar are seeking to extend the ceasefire.
Prior to the latest release, Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip and met with the military. It was not immediately clear where in Gaza he went.
“We are making every effort to return the hostages and will eventually return them all,” he said. He added: “We will continue until the end, until we win. Nothing will stop us.”
Hamas announced in a statement on Sunday that it is seeking to extend the four-day truce with Israel if serious efforts are made to increase the number of Palestinian detainees released by Israel.
Hamas commander killed
In a separate development, Hamas announced that one of its top commanders had been killed, but did not say when or how. The Israeli military recognized this.
Ahmed al-Ghandour, who was in charge of northern Gaza and a member of the Supreme Military Council, is the highest-ranking militant known to have died in the fighting.
Al-Ghandour, believed to be around 56 years old, has survived at least three Israeli attempts on his life, according to the Counter-Extremism Project, and has survived at least three Israeli attempts on his life, including a 2006 cross-border attack in which Palestinian extremists killed Israeli soldiers. He is said to have been detained. An advocacy group based in Washington.
Hamas said al-Ghandour was killed along with three other senior militants, including Ayman Siam, who Israel says was in charge of Hamas’s rocket-launching unit.
The Israeli military mentioned both suspects in a statement on November 16, saying they had targeted underground facilities where Hamas leaders were hiding. The Israeli military claims, without providing evidence, that it has killed thousands of militants, including several mid-ranking commanders whose names have been released.
The ceasefire agreement marks the first significant pause in the seven-week war, which has been marked by the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades and widespread destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip. Hamas and other extremist groups have detained about 240 people in the uprising in southern Israel that sparked the war.
featured videosAs Israel and Hamas begin a four-day ceasefire, world affairs expert Janice Stein and hostage negotiator Dan O’Shea speak to Ian Hanomansing about the future of the war and the remaining hostages and detainees. talk.
Pressure from the hostages’ families has exacerbated the dilemma for Israeli leaders, who are seeking to return all prisoners while eliminating Hamas as a military and governing power. The war claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians killed by Hamas in the initial attack. More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, about two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The ceasefire, which began Friday, was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. Israel has said it can extend the ceasefire by one day for every 10 more hostages released, but has vowed to resume attacks as soon as the ceasefire ends.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States is “working with all sides on the possibility of expanding this arrangement to include more hostages beyond the original 50.”
“The battle is not over.”
Aharon Brodach, a relative of some of the Israeli hostages, told CBC. rosemary burton live He spoke of his hope that his sister-in-law and her three children – a 10-year-old daughter, an 8-year-old son and a 4-year-old son – would be released soon.
The four were abducted by Hamas during a raid on Kibbutz Kfar Azha on October 7. The Israeli-Canadian said he recently flew to Israel as he and his brother anxiously awaited news of their safe return.
“The fight won’t be over until every last hostage is out, and we hope it’s all over once and for all,” Brodach said. “I don’t understand the politics of this situation, but I hope it continues and everyone evacuates.”
On Saturday, the militants released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, and Israel released 39 imprisoned Palestinians.
Heroes welcomed in West Bank
Some Palestinian detainees were released in East Jerusalem, but most returned home to a hero’s welcome in the occupied West Bank.
Among those released was Nurhan Awad, a 17-year-old who was sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison in 2016 for trying to stab an Israeli soldier with scissors. Isra Jarvis had been imprisoned since 2015 after being convicted of a bomb attack that injured an Israeli police officer and caused severe burns to his face and hands.
In the West Bank town of Al-Bireh, recently released teenagers paraded through the main square, waving Palestinian flags, as well as the green flag of Hamas and the yellow flag of President Mahmoud Abbas’ rival Fatah party. .
According to the advocacy group Palestinian Prisoners of War Club, Israel has detained 7,200 Palestinians, including about 2,000 arrested since the war began.
The war in Gaza has been accompanied by a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian health authorities announced early Sunday that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military raid on the northern West Bank city of Jenin that began the day before.
The military announced earlier this year that it had arrested a suspect who killed an Israeli father and son at a car wash in the West Bank. Since the start of the war, the military has carried out frequent military raids and arrested hundreds of Palestinians, most of whom are suspected to be members of Hamas.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Sunday that one Palestinian farmer was also killed and another injured when Israeli forces targeted the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
