14 new Hamas hostages must be released in exchange for 42 Palestinian prisoners this Saturday, on the second day of the truce between the terrorist movement and Israel which offers a fragile respite to the inhabitants of Gaza after seven weeks of war. But late this Saturday afternoon, Hamas announced that it was freezing the release of these hostages until Israel “respects the agreement”. A little later in the evening, Qatar finally announced that 20 hostages, including 13 Israelis, would indeed be released “this (Saturday) evening. This was quickly confirmed by Hamas. The hostages were subsequently handed over to the Red Cross.
This renewable four-day truce, obtained on Wednesday by Qatar with the support of the United States and Egypt, provides for the release of 50 hostages held in the Gaza Strip and 150 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
Information to remember:
- 20 hostages, including 13 Israelis, were released this Saturday evening.
- Hamas initially froze the process, believing that Israel was not respecting the agreement
- 24 hostages were released on Friday
- 200 trucks loaded with aid entered Gaza
The second group of hostages arrived in Israel
A second group of hostages released by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which was holding them in the Gaza Strip, arrived in Israel on Saturday evening, the Israeli army announced. According to Egyptian and Israeli authorities, 13 Israeli hostages and four Thais were released. Their release, delayed for part of the day, ended up being released as part of the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas says it handed over the 20 hostages to the Red Cross, Israel confirms
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas, announced in a statement on Saturday that they had handed over 13 Israeli hostages and seven foreigners to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), shortly before midnight, the deadline for respect the agreement with Israel. The hostages are now “on their way to the Rafah terminal” towards Egypt, the Israeli army said. Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners, women and adolescents under the age of 19 imprisoned by Israel, were to be released immediately.
20 hostages, including 13 Israelis, will be released “this evening”, says Qatar
Qatar, at the helm of the negotiations leading to the agreement between Israel and Hamas, announced this Saturday evening that 20 hostages, including 13 Israelis, will be released “this evening”, in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners. “After a delay, obstacles to releasing the prisoners were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides, and 39 Palestinian civilians will be released this evening, while 13 Israeli hostages will leave Gaza with seven foreigners,” said on X the spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Majed Al-Ansari.
In a statement, Hamas said it had “responded positively to the Egyptian and Qatari efforts which lasted all day”. He specified that he had obtained from Israel a “commitment” in particular on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the north of the Gaza Strip and the release of Palestinian prisoners incarcerated for a long time.
What about the state of health of the hostages?
Although they are physically and psychologically exhausted after 49 days of captivity, the hostages released by Hamas display a stable state of health, as confirmed by the head doctor of Schneider Hospital where eight of them are in convalescence. However, she specifies that special attention is being paid to them, even though these hostages spent most of their captivity in the darkness of Hamas tunnels.
Astonishment in Tel Aviv on the square where the families of hostages gather
“It is impossible to trust the terrorist organization in these negotiations,” reacted a Franco-Israeli woman in Tel Aviv on Europe 1. On the esplanade where the families of hostages are used to meeting every day, amazement predominates. Anguish and anger too as a dial indicating the number of days and hours of captivity of hostages in Gaza was installed.
Hamas delays release of hostages
The Hamas terrorist movement indicated this Saturday that it was delaying the release of the second group of hostages held in the Gaza Strip until Israel “respects the agreement” which entered into force the day before. The Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades are demanding in particular “the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the north of the Gaza Strip” and respect for the “selection criteria” for the release of Palestinian prisoners, they indicated in a press release. . Israeli officials confirmed to AFP that the hostages had not yet been handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
24 hostages released
A two-minute video released by Hamas on Friday showed masked men, armed with rifles, wearing military fatigues and the green headband of the movement’s armed wing handing over the hostages to the International Red Cross.
These first 24 hostages (13 Israelis, ten Thais and one Filipino) then arrived in Israel via Egypt. Israel, for its part, released 39 Palestinians detained in its prisons. “It’s just the beginning, but so far it’s going well,” US President Joe Biden said on Friday, adding that there is a “real chance” of extending the truce. “In the coming days, we expect dozens of hostages to be reunited with their families,” he said.
Qatar is due to announce on Saturday how many hostages and prisoners are to be released during the day. Israeli authorities said they had received the list, but did not specify the number or the expected time of their release. “There are approximately 215 hostages remaining in Gaza,” Israeli army spokesman Doron Spielman said. “We don’t know, in many cases, whether they are dead or alive,” he added.
Among the remaining hostages are another 20 Thai nationals, the Thai Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, hoping that they “will be treated humanely and released unharmed as soon as possible.”
The smiling faces of the first freed hostages
In Tel Aviv, smiling faces of freed hostages were projected Friday evening on the facade of the Art Museum, with the words: “I’m back home.” And near a hospital in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva, people cheered and waved Israeli flags as the two helicopters carrying freed hostages approached. “We are very moved,” comments Noa Halpern, who came with her family. “We want everyone to return home safe and sound.”
“I am happy to have found my family. Feeling joy is allowed and it is allowed to shed a tear. It’s human,” declares Yoni Asher, who has just found his wife Doron and his two daughters aged two and four years, in a video broadcast by the Hostage Families Forum. “But I’m not partying, I won’t party until the last hostages come home,” he adds. His wife Doron lost her mother in the attack, and his brother and his mother’s partner are still hostages in Gaza. “Difficult days still lie ahead,” he says.
The Israeli army estimates that around 240 people were kidnapped by Hamas during the bloody attack carried out by the terrorist organization on Israeli territory on October 7. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who makes the release of the hostages a prerequisite for any ceasefire, said on Friday he was determined to bring them all back to Israel.
Before the 24 hostages released Friday, Hamas had already released four people, and the Israeli army had recovered another. Two other captives, including a female soldier, were found dead in Gaza by Israeli troops.
Scenes of jubilation in the West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, scenes of jubilation accompanied the return of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel, such as in Beitunia or further north, in the Nablus refugee camp. Under slogans, amid fireworks, Palestinian flags and various movements including the green banner of Hamas, the released detainees embrace their families and cry in the arms of moved parents.
In East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, any celebration has, however, been banned. In the family home in the Beit Hanina neighborhood, Marah Bakir, 24 years old, eight of whom spent in prison for attempted murder of an Israeli border guard, continues interviews. “I am happy but my liberation came at the price of the blood of the martyrs,” she says, referring to the thousands of Palestinians killed in the bombings on Gaza. “I spent the end of my childhood and my adolescence in prison, far from my parents and their hugs, but that’s how it is with a State that oppresses us and leaves none of us alone,” adds- She.
According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed on October 7 during the attack by Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel. In retaliation, Israel relentlessly bombed the Palestinian territory and launched a ground offensive on October 27 to “eliminate” Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007. In the Gaza Strip, 14,854 people, including 6,150 children , were killed by Israeli strikes, according to the Hamas government.
1.7 million people have been displaced according to the UN
The truce offers a fragile moment of respite to Gazans. But the din of war has been replaced by the horns of traffic jams and the sirens of ambulances trying to make their way among the displaced leaving hospitals and schools in droves where they had found refuge to “return home”. More than half of the territory’s housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN, and 1.7 million people have been displaced, out of the 2.4 million in the Gaza Strip.
In Khan Younès, in the south of the territory, an elderly man passes by, a bag on his shoulder. With a hoarse voice, he says he has “confidence because it’s a truce” and finally returns “to the village”, to Khouzaa, along the border with Israel. Around it, thousands of men, women and children walk, pile into cars or let themselves be carried on carts. But leaflets launched from the air by the Israeli army warn: “the war is not over yet”.
The army considers the northern third of the territory, where Gaza City is located, to be a combat zone and orders all civilians to leave. “Returning to the North is prohibited and very dangerous!!!”, warns the leaflet. Despite this warning, several thousand Palestinians attempted to reach northern Gaza on Friday, according to the United Nations agency responsible for humanitarian coordination (Ocha). Also according to OCHA, at least one person was killed and several dozen injured in incidents with Israeli forces, who opened fire and threw tear gas at Palestinians heading north.
200 trucks loaded with aid entered Gaza on Friday
The truce should also allow the entry of a greater number of humanitarian aid convoys into the Gaza Strip, subject to an Israeli blockade since Hamas came to power in 2007 and in a state of “complete siege” since October 9, Israel having cut off supplies of water, food, electricity, medicine and fuel.
On Friday, 200 trucks loaded with aid entered Gaza, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry’s department responsible for civil affairs in Gaza. This is the “largest humanitarian convoy” since the start of the war, OCHA stressed.