The release of a new small group of hostages held by Hamas since October 7 must take place this Saturday. In return, 39 Palestinian detainees will be released from prison.
**The Red Cross announces that 13 Israeli hostages and 4 foreigners have been released by Hamas.**For its part, the armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, has also announced that it has released to the Cross -Red 13 Israeli hostages and 4 foreigners.
Asked about future sequels, Daniel Hagari estimated that “every day was an operation in itself”. “Nothing is concluded. Yesterday’s day is not like today’s (…). There is coordination between so many parties that it does not happen according to a precise schedule”he added. “We want everything to go well and for (the hostages) to come home.”
Earlier in this press conference, Daniel Hagari had called for “patience” and had estimated that there was “a progression”. “Efforts continue”he added, speaking of an “obligation” to do everything to bring the hostages back to Israel.
“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”declared 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” notably on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the north of the Gaza Strip and the release of long-term incarcerated Palestinian prisoners.
The Red Crescent has delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza City and the Northern Governorate. This is the aid convoy “the largest transported to Gaza” since October 7, the Palestinian humanitarian organization said on Saturday noon. Sixty-one trucks were loaded “food and non-food products, water, medicines and emergency medical supplies” from the Rafah terminal in Egypt and Red Crescent warehouses located in the south of the enclave.
“An Egyptian official said 340 aid trucks had entered the crossing from the Egyptian side, but had not yet reached the Gaza side because they must be inspected by Israel first”, reported CNN media early in the evening. A spokesperson for the Rafah border post also told CNN that “133 trucks have entered the Gaza Strip so far”reports the American media.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said early in the evening that they would postpone the release of the hostages until Israel commits to authorizing “the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the north of the Gaza Strip” and respect the “selection criteria” agreed for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
These releases in both camps are accompanied by a renewable four-day truce, obtained by Qatar with the support of the United States and Egypt.
The agreement, concluded after several weeks of negotiations, provides for the release of a total of 50 hostages held by Hamas and 150 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
The first 24 hostages released on Friday (13 Israelis, ten Thais and one Filipino) through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) returned to Israel via Egypt and were hospitalized, surrounded by their families. Israel, for its part, released 39 Palestinians on the first day of the truce.
“There are approximately 215 hostages remaining in Gaza”declared Israeli army spokesperson Doron Spielman.“We don’t know, in many cases, whether they are dead or alive,” he added.
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”.
The Israeli authorities asked the media to let the first ex-hostages reunite with their families in the strictest privacy. And those whose loved ones are still detained by Hamas waited in anguish for an end to a nightmare that has lasted for seven weeks.
“Today, we are happy to see our people return but we must not forget all those who have not yet returned”testified Yael Adar, the daughter-in-law of Yaffa Adar, an 85-year-old woman who is the oldest of the ex-hostages, on the Ynet news site.
“We will not be silent until the last of the detainees returns home”promised Yael Adar, whose son Tamir, a 38-year-old father of two young children, is still in the hands of Hamas after being kidnapped like his grandmother in the Nir Oz kibbutz.
Four released children and four women were taken to Schneider Children’s Hospital in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva, where their condition on Saturday was “Good”, according to the spokesperson for this establishment. The other five, elderly women, are at Wolfson Hospital in Holon, near Tel Aviv, also surrounded by their families.
In the occupied West Bank, scenes of jubilation, amid fireworks, Palestinian flags and various movements including the green banner of Hamas, accompanied the return of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel. In East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, demonstrations of joy were, however, prohibited.
The truce offers a fragile moment of respite to the inhabitants of Gaza
On Friday, thousands of displaced people left hospitals and schools in the south of the territory where they had sought refuge, rushing to return home.
In hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip, ambulance convoys evacuating wounded from hospitals in the north continue to arrive. But, assures Dr. Ashraf al-Qidreh, spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Health, “they no longer have the reception capacity or the equipment” to cope.
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.
“The truce feels good, we hope it will last. It’s good when it’s calm. People want to live”told AFP Mohammed Dheir, who found refuge with his family in Rafah, in the south of Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the north have massed since the start of the war in this part of the territory to try to escape the bombings.
The army considers the northern third of the Gaza Strip, where Gaza City is located, to be a combat zone housing the center of Hamas’s infrastructure and has ordered all civilians out.
Leaflets launched from the air by the Israeli army on Friday warned: “the war is not over yet”, “returning to the north is prohibited and very dangerous!!!”
The truce should also allow the acceleration of the arrival of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. These cargoes, whose entry from Egypt is subject to the green light from Israel, have been arriving in recent weeks in dribs and drabs.
After the arrival of 200 trucks loaded with aid on Friday, according to an Israeli government service, a record quantity since the start of the war, new trucks crossed the Rafah border crossing on Saturday.
Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani received a call from US President Joe Biden,to discuss the “progress made in the implementation of the humanitarian truce” between Israel and Hamas, the Qatari leader’s office said in a statement.