DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip –
Hamas and Israel released more hostages and prisoners on Tuesday under the terms of a fragile ceasefire that lasted five days, as international mediators in Qatar work to extend the ceasefire. The United States has called on Israel to increase protection for Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip if it keeps its promise to restart the war.
In the latest exchanges since the start of the ceasefire on Friday, Israel announced that 10 of its nationals and two Thai nationals had been released by Hamas and returned to Israel. Shortly after, Israel released 30 Palestinian prisoners. The ceasefire agreement is scheduled to end after another round of exchanges on Wednesday night.
For the first time, Israel and Hamas have accused each other of a gunfight between troops and militants in northern Gaza. There is no sign that the ceasefire agreement is in jeopardy, which has allowed humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza.
CIA Director William Burns and Israel’s Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea were in Qatar, a key mediator with Hamas, to discuss extending the ceasefire and releasing additional hostages, a diplomat said in a confidential statement. He spoke on condition of anonymity. I talk. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to visit the region this week.
Israel has vowed to resume war to end Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza and crush its military power once it becomes clear that no more hostages will be released under the deal. This would almost certainly require expanding ground attacks from northern Gaza to the south, where most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are currently concentrated. If Israel does accept refugees, it is unclear where they will go, as Egypt refuses to accept them and Israel has closed its borders.
The Biden administration should urge Israel to avoid “further significant expulsions” of Palestinian civilians and mass casualties if it resumes attacks, U.S. officials said, adding that it would require more precise operations in southern Gaza than in the north. I was told that I needed to do this. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
Hamas and other militants still hold about 160 of the 240 hostages they captured in the Oct. 7 raid in southern Israel that sparked the war. According to an agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, Israel intends to extend the ceasefire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released by Hamas, but Hamas will make even higher demands for the release of hostages. It is expected that A captured Israeli soldier.
hostages and prisoners freed
The Israeli military said the latest group of Israeli hostages released from Gaza – nine women and one 17-year-old – were flown to an Israeli hospital. The hostages were handed over in a crowded street with cheering people, according to an Associated Press video. The 17-year-old girl was seen walking with a small white-haired dog named Bella to a Red Cross jeep waiting alongside Hamas militants.
Tuesday’s hostage release brings the number of Israelis freed during the ceasefire to 60. Since the start of the ceasefire, a further 21 hostages (19 Thai, one Filipino and one Russian-Israeli) have been released through separate negotiations.
Before the ceasefire, Hamas released four Israeli hostages and Israeli forces rescued one. Two other hostages were found dead in Gaza.
The latest exchange brings the number of Palestinian women and teenagers released from Israeli prisons to 180. Most are teenagers accused of throwing stones and incendiary devices during clashes with Israeli forces. Several of the freed women were convicted by Israeli military courts of attempting the deadly attack. The prisoners are widely seen by Palestinians as heroes resisting the occupation.
In the occupied West Bank, hundreds of Palestinians lined the streets of Ramallah to welcome Palestinian prisoners recently released by Israel. Red Cross buses transported prisoners from Ofer, an Israeli military prison, to central Ramallah. Some were carried through the crowd on the shoulders of Palestinians.
Thai Foreign Minister Panpuri Bahidda Nukara welcomed two released Thai hostages at Israel’s Shamir Medical Center on Tuesday. A small crowd applauded as the two men got out of the car and walked into the hospital, smiling.
The freed hostages have largely remained out of the public eye, but details about their captors are beginning to emerge.
In one of the first interviews with freed hostages, 78-year-old Ruti Mander told Israel’s Channel 13 television that she was initially well-fed during her captivity, but as the shortages took hold. He said the situation had worsened. She was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept for nearly 50 days in a plastic chair covered with her own sheet, she said.
Northern Gaza in ruins
The ceasefire has allowed remaining residents of Gaza City and other parts of the north to come out to survey the destruction and attempt to locate and bury their relatives.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, which has been heavily bombarded by Israel for weeks and besieged by troops in fierce fighting with insurgents, “we find entire city blocks destroyed, buildings collapsed and concrete piled up. ” said Thomas White. , the Gaza director of the United Nations agency that cares for Palestinian refugees.
The agency delivered six trucks of relief supplies to the camp, including supplies for medical centers. Footage of Mr White’s visit showed streets lined with destroyed buildings, cars and piles of rubble.
A United Nations-led aid consortium estimates that more than 234,000 homes across Gaza have been damaged and more than 46,000 have been completely destroyed, representing about 60% of the region’s housing stock. There is. In the north, destruction has “severely compromised the ability to meet the basic requirements for sustaining life,” the report said.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, about two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip’s health ministry, which says civilians and It does not differentiate between combatants. On the Israeli side, more than 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians killed in the initial attack.
At least 77 soldiers were killed in Israeli ground attacks. Israel claims, without providing evidence, that it has killed thousands of militants.
Authorities were able to reopen the dialysis unit at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after medical teams brought in a small generator. Dr. Mutassim Salah told Al Jazeera TV from the hospital that about 20 patients had been without dialysis for two to three weeks.
Two weeks ago, Israeli forces occupied the hospital, which Israel claimed was used by Hamas as a main base, a claim denied by Hamas and hospital officials.
fear of the south
The United Nations says Israeli shelling and ground attacks have displaced more than 1.8 million people, nearly 80% of Gaza’s population, most of them in the south. Hundreds of thousands of people have packed into schools and other facilities run by the United Nations. Overcrowding forced many to sleep outside on the streets. The situation is made even more dire by rain and cold winds blowing across Gaza.
On Tuesday, Hanan Taye returned to his destroyed home in downtown Johor Ardiq, searching for his belongings.
“I came here to buy something for my daughters. Winter has come and I don’t have anything to wear them,” she said.
The ceasefire has increased aid shipments to Gaza by 160 to 200 trucks per day, delivering desperately needed food, water and medicine, as well as fuel to homes, hospitals and water treatment plants. Now you can. Despite soaring humanitarian needs, Gaza imports less than half of what it was importing before the fighting.
Juliet Thoma, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Palestine Refugee Agency, said people were coming to the shelters seeking thick clothing, mattresses and blankets, and some were sleeping in damaged vehicles.
“The need is overwhelming,” she told The Associated Press. “They lost everything, and they need everything.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced Tuesday that the United States has airlifted more than 27 tons of Gaza-bound medical supplies and food aid to a transit point in Egypt. Two more airlifts are planned in the coming days, Sullivan said.
——
Keith and Jeffrey reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Aamer Madani and Zeke Miller in Washington, Sammy Magdy in Cairo, Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Isabel Debre in Jerusalem and John Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, reported this report. Contributed to the book.
