Hamas is expected to exchange more hostages Saturday with Palestinians held in Israeli prisons on the second day of a cease-fire, allowing vital humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and giving civilians seven weeks. I was given a break for the first time in a while.
However, by Saturday evening Hamas announced it would delay the release of a second group of hostages, claiming that Israel was not adhering to the terms of the agreement and not providing sufficient aid to the besieged enclave. .
Hamas did not say how long the delay would be. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday that 196 aid trucks had arrived, and Israel said Saturday that four fuel trucks and four gasoline tanks had arrived.
There was no immediate Israeli reaction to Hamas’ statement about the delay.
On the first day of a four-day ceasefire, Hamas released 24 of the 240 hostages it captured in the October 7 Israeli attack that sparked the war, and Israel released 39 Palestinians held in its prison. did. Those released from captivity in Gaza included 13 Israelis.
The Filipino and 10 Thai nationals, farm workers employed in southern Israel at the time of their arrest, were released under a separate agreement brokered by Egypt.
Family members of the hostages expressed mixed emotions out of fear for those left behind.
Thai farm worker Bethun Poom told his family, who thought he had been killed in a Hamas attack seven weeks ago, “I’m not dead, I’m not dead,” according to his sister Rongarn Wichagarn. ” he is said to have said.
She told Reuters from her home in northeastern Thailand that her 33-year-old brother’s survival was a “miracle”.
Thailand announced that 20 of its citizens remain in detention, with Prime Minister Suretta Thabissin calling for their release “as soon as possible” in a social media post.
More hostages and detainees to be released
Officials briefed on the negotiations said Tai’s release was unrelated to the ceasefire agreement with Israel and was in line with separate talks with Hamas brokered by Egypt and Qatar.
Under the agreement, Hamas will release one Israeli hostage for every three Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Israel’s Prisons Authority announced on Saturday that it was preparing for the release of 42 Palestinians and hinted that Hamas might release 14 hostages. It was not immediately clear how many non-Israeli prisoners would be released.
There was no official Israeli announcement on the number of hostages to be released on Saturday, but Hamas submitted a list of names to authorities late Friday.
It was not immediately clear how many non-Israeli prisoners would be released.
Over the next four days, Hamas will free at least 50 Israeli hostages, and Israel plans to free 150 Palestinians, including women and minors.
Israel has said it can extend the ceasefire by one day for every 10 more hostages released, something US President Joe Biden has said he hopes will happen.
“I’m really looking forward to the family hugging their loved ones today,” Sherry Shem Tov, the mother of Omer Shem Tov, 21, said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12. Her son was not among those released Friday. .
“I’m jealous. And I’m sad. The saddest thing is that Omer hasn’t come back yet.”
Since Friday evening, a convoy of ambulances carrying freed hostages has arrived in Egypt from Gaza through the Rafah crossing. The freed Israelis included nine women and four children under the age of nine.
More than 20 children remain trapped in Gaza, including the youngest, who is just 10 months old.
“Sensitive moments” for families
The freed hostages were taken to three Israeli hospitals for observation. Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, said it was treating eight Israelis, four children and four women, and that all appeared to be in relatively good health. The center said the families were also receiving psychological treatment, adding that “this is a sensitive time” for the family.
featured videosChildren hostages released on the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are being treated at Schneider Children’s Medical Center. Gilat Livni, head of the pediatric department, said the children were in good condition and had even requested to be hospitalized for several days.
“Sometimes my eyes fill with tears,” said Dr. Gilat Livni, head of the hospital’s pediatric department, who was present when the first group of children arrived at the hospital to be reunited with their families.
“We just listened to parents, mothers and children talk about what happened over the last 50 days,” Livni said in an interview with CBC News on Saturday.
Livni said the former hostages were in “fair condition.”
They had all lost some weight and some were suffering from diarrhea and infections.. While in Gaza, they mainly ate simple foods such as rice and vegetables, she said.
Livni said the new patients were believed to have spent most of their time underground in Gaza and underwent medical tests, including eye exams. When asked where the hostages were sleeping, Livni pointed to the floor.
featured videosJonathan Dekerchen, whose 35-year-old son Sagi is being held in Gaza, says he is committed to securing the release of everyone held by Hamas.
Ohad Munder, who celebrated his ninth birthday in captivity, was released along with his mother and grandmother, but his 78-year-old grandfather remains in Gaza. He is one of four children in the hospital.
“I had a dream that I was coming home,” said 4-year-old Raz Asher, another former hostage who was freed along with his mother and 2-year-old sister Aviv. “Now it’s a dream come true,” his father, Yoni, said.
On the Palestinian side, 24 women and 15 teenage boys held in Israeli prisons in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have been released. In the West Bank town of Beituniya, hundreds of Palestinians rushed out of their homes to celebrate, honking their horns and setting off fireworks that lit up the night sky.
The teens had been jailed for petty crimes such as stone-throwing. The women included several convicted of attempting to stab Israeli soldiers and others arrested at checkpoints in the West Bank.
Israel currently holds 7,200 Palestinians, including about 2,000 arrested since the start of the war, according to the advocacy group Palestinian Prisoners of War Club.
Gaza residents evaluate their homes
The start of the truce on Friday morning left thousands dead and three-quarters of the population forced from their homes, shaken and despairing by Israel’s relentless shelling, forcing them from flattened residential areas. For the first time, silence has come to 2.3 million Palestinians. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel also fell silent.
For Emad Abu Hajer, a resident of Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza City area, Friday’s suspension meant he could again dig through the rubble of his home, which was flattened by an Israeli attack last week.
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featured videosDr. Hagai Levin, who is leading the medical team assisting the hostages, said the team will first address immediate medical needs, followed by emotional, psychological and other needs.
He discovered the bodies of his cousin and nephew, bringing the death toll from the attack to 19. He resumed excavation work on Saturday as his sister and two other relatives were still missing.
“We want to find them and bury them with dignity,” he said.
Amal Abu Awada, a 40-year-old widow who fled Gaza City’s Khan Yunis refugee camp with her three children in early November, went to the United Nations facility on Friday in search of food and water, but found nothing was available. said there was nothing.
featured videosThe video shows the hostages, believed to be Thai, and some Israeli hostages being escorted by masked and armed men, while Red Cross staff and others are transferred to another van.
“We went home empty-handed,” she said. “But at least there’s no bomb, so we can try again.”
Israel has vowed to resume major attacks once the ceasefire ends. This has undermined hopes that the deal will ultimately lead to a quelling of the conflict, and raised concerns that it could lead to an escalation in violence in the occupied West Bank and widespread fires across the Middle East. Concerns are growing.
Israel launched an offensive into Gaza after Hamas fighters crossed the border fence into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people. including several Canadians.
Since then, Israel has shelled the Hamas-controlled enclave, killing about 14,000 Gazans, about 40% of them children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
