KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas released 13 Israelis and four foreigners late Saturday in the second round of swap deals under a ceasefire agreement, the Israeli military said, after the militant group initially postponed the exchange for several hours and claimed that Israel had violated the terms of a ceasefire.
Shortly after midnight, the Israeli military said the freed hostages, including four Thais, had been transferred to Israel. They were taken to hospitals for observation and reunited with their families.
Israel was expected to release 39 Palestinians later Saturday as part of the deal that was ultimately reached after international mediation efforts.
The Israeli hostages released by Hamas on Saturday include seven children and six women, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced. Most of the released hostages were from Kibbutz Be’eri, a community that Hamas militants ravaged during their October 7 cross-border attack, a kibbutz spokesman said. The children ranged in age from 3 to 16 years, and the women from 18 to 67 years.
It was a bittersweet moment for the people of Be’eri. A kibbutz spokesman said all of the released hostages either had a family member killed in the October 7 rampage or had left a loved one behind in Gaza.
The mother of one of the released hostages, 12-year-old Hila Rotem, remained in custody, the spokesperson said.
Another, Emily Hand, is a girl whose father thought she was dead for weeks before he discovered she was being held as a hostage.
The last-minute delay had led to a tense standoff on the second day of what was supposed to be a four-day ceasefire. By nightfall, when the hostages were supposed to arrive from Gaza, Hamas claimed that aid deliveries allowed by Israel fell short of what had been promised and that not enough of it reached northern Gaza – the center of Israel’s ground offensive and main combat zone. Hamas also said that not enough veteran prisoners were released in the first swap on Friday.
“This puts the deal at risk,” Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in Beirut. But Egypt, Qatar and Hamas itself later said the obstacles had been overcome, with Hamas naming six women and 33 teenage boys expected to be released by the Israelis. Two women, Maysoun Jabali and Israa Jaabis, were jailed in 2015 after being convicted of carrying out attacks on Israelis. Jaabis suffered serious burns during the incident.
While uncertainty remained about some details of the exchange, there was also some optimism, amid earlier scenes of joyful families reuniting on both sides.
On the first day of the ceasefire, Hamas released 24 of about 240 hostages taken during the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war, and Israel freed 39 Palestinians from prison. The freedmen in Gaza included thirteen Israelis, ten Thais and one Filipino.
In total, Hamas will release at least 50 Israeli hostages and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners – all women and minors – during the four-day ceasefire.
Israel has said the ceasefire could be extended for an additional day for every additional 10 hostages released – something US President Joe Biden said he hoped would happen.
In addition, a Qatari delegation arrived in Israel on Saturday to coordinate with parties on the ground and “ensure the deal continues to move smoothly,” according to a diplomat briefed on the visit. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details with the media.
The start of the pause brought peace to 2.3 million Palestinians reeling from the brutal Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands of people, driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and razed residential areas. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel also remained silent.
War-weary Palestinians in northern Gaza returned to the streets, crunching rubble between shattered buildings and sometimes digging through it with their bare hands. At the Indonesian hospital in Jabaliya, which was besieged by the Israeli army earlier this month, bodies lay in the courtyard and outside the main entrance.
For Emad Abu Hajer, a resident of the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza City region, the break meant he could once again search the remains of his home, which was razed in an Israeli attack last week.
He found the bodies of a nephew and a cousin, bringing the death toll in the attack to 19. His sister and two other relatives are still missing.
“We want to find them and bury them with dignity,” he said.
The United Nations said the pause allowed deliveries of food, water and medicine to be scaled up to the largest volume since the resumption of aid convoys on October 21. It was also capable of delivering 129,000 liters (34,078 gallons) of fuel – just over 10% of the daily pre-war volume – plus cooking gas, a first since the start of the war.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, a long line of people with containers waited outside a gas station. Hossam Fayad lamented that the lull in fighting lasted only four days.
“I wish it could be extended until people’s conditions improved,” he said.
For the first time in over a month, aid reached northern Gaza. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 61 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies were on the way on Saturday, the largest aid convoy to reach the area yet. The UN said that and the Palestinian Red Crescent were also able to evacuate 40 patients and relatives from a hospital in Gaza City to a hospital in Khan Younis.
JOY AND EXPECTATION
In Tel Aviv, several thousand people gathered in a central square dubbed “the Square of the Hostages,” awaiting news of the second release.
“Don’t forget the others, because it’s getting harder and harder and harder. It’s heartbreaking,” said Neri Gershon, a Tel Aviv resident. Some families have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of not doing enough to bring hostages home.
In the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank, the family of 16-year-old Wael Mesheh was frantically preparing the house for his return as part of the second exchange. “We’re going to hug him so tight,” his mother, Hanadi Mesheh, said by phone.
The first group of released Israelis consisted of nine women and four children aged nine and under. They were taken to Israeli hospitals for observation and were declared to be in good condition.
Hours later, 24 Palestinian women and 15 teenage boys held in Israeli prisons in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem were released. The teenagers had been convicted of minor crimes, such as throwing stones. The women included several convicted of stabbing Israeli soldiers.
“It is a happiness tainted with sadness because our release from prison came at the cost of the lives of martyrs and the innocence of children,” said a released prisoner, Aseel Munir al-Titi.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy group, Israel holds 7,200 Palestinians, including about 2,000 arrested since the war began.
At least two Palestinians were injured on Saturday at a tense checkpoint in the West Bank where Israel had to free prisoners. Israeli security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians gathered at the Beitunia checkpoint. It is not clear how the two were injured.
A LONGER PEACE?
The war broke out when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking dozens of hostages, including infants, women and older adults, as well as soldiers.
“At the end of the ceasefire, we will immediately return to attacking Gaza, operating inside Gaza,” Herzi Halevi, Israel’s chief of staff, told the soldiers.
Israeli leaders have said they will not stop until Hamas, which has controlled Gaza for the past 16 years, is crushed. Israeli officials have argued that only military pressure can bring the hostages home. But the government is under pressure from the hostages’ families to prioritize the release of the remaining prisoners.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led government in Gaza. Women and minors consistently make up about two-thirds of the deaths. The figure does not include updated figures from hospitals in the north, where communications have been cut.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Mroue from Beirut. Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed.
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Full AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.