Israel-Hamas Truce Deal: 2nd Stage of Hostage-Prisoner Release

Gaza: Israel and Palestinian group Hamas started a four-day truce on Friday morning and the first group of hostages was released later that day. Under the Israel-Hamas deal, the two sides agreed to a four-day truce so that 50 women and children under the age of 19 taken hostage could be freed in return for 150 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli detention. The 50 hostages, among about 240 taken by Hamas in their Oct. 7 raid on Israel, are expected to be released in batches, probably about a dozen a day, during the four-day ceasefire. Thirteen Israelis were released on Friday. Ten Thai citizens and a Philippine national – farm workers employed in southern Israel when they were seized – were freed under a separate agreement. Those involved in the deal for the Israeli hostages have described the break in hostilities as “a humanitarian pause”. The pause will be extended by a day for each additional batch of 10 hostages released, Israel said in a statement. Hamas said Israel had agreed to halt air traffic over the north of Gaza from 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) until 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) each day of the truce and to halt all air traffic over the south for the entire period. The group said Israel agreed not to attack or arrest anyone in Gaza, and people can move freely along Salah al-Din Street, the main road along which many Palestinians have fled northern Gaza where Israel launched its ground invasion. Qatar’s chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, said that under the deal there would be “no attack whatsoever. No military movements, no expansion, nothing.” The truce between Israel and Hamas started on Friday morning, with a first batch of hostages released later that day. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said the lists of all civilians that would be released from Gaza had been agreed and Qatar hoped to negotiate a subsequent agreement to release additional hostages from Gaza by the fourth day of the truce. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is working in Gaza to facilitate the release of the hostages, Qatar said. On Friday, hostages were transported through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, the only country apart from Israel to share a border with Gaza. During the truce, trucks loaded with aid and fuel are expected to cross into Gaza, where 2.3 million people have been running out of food and many hospitals have shut down in part because they no longer have fuel for their generators. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said 196 trucks of humanitarian aid arrived on Friday, the biggest such convoy into Gaza since the start of the war. An operations room in Doha will monitor the truce and the release of hostages and has direct lines of communication with Israel, the Hamas political office in Doha and ICRC, Qatar’s foreign ministry said. The 13 Israeli hostages released by Hamas fighters on Friday included four young children and their mothers, and elderly women. In addition to Israeli civilians and soldiers taken on Oct. 7, more than half the roughly 240 hostages are foreign and dual nationals from about 40 countries including Argentina, Britain, Chile, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Thailand and the U.S., Israel’s government has said. Not all the hostages taken on Oct. 7 were being held by Hamas fighters. Who are the Palestinians being freed and why were they held? Thirty-nine Palestinian women and children, some convicted or detained on suspicion of weapon charges and violent offences, were released from Israeli jails.

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