Key Points
- Hamas freed 24 hostages from Gaza on the first day of truce, while Israel released 38 Palestinians.
- Biden says there was a chance of extending the truce.
- UN humanitarian office said 137 trucks of goods offloaded in Gaza, biggest convoy received since 7 October.
Hamas fighters have released 24 hostages , including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers, after guns fell silent across the Gaza Strip for the first time in seven weeks.
The hostages were transferred out of Gaza and handed over to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, accompanied by eight staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a four-car convoy, the ICRC said.
Qatar, which acted as a mediator for the truce deal, said 13 Israelis had been released, some with dual citizenship, plus 10 Thais and a Filipino.
Under the terms of the four-day Israel-Hamas truce, 50 women and children hostages are to be released over four days, in return for 150 Palestinian women and children among thousands of detainees in Israeli jails.
Thirty-nine Palestinian women and children detainees were released from Israeli jails.
In at least three cases, before the prisoners were released, Israeli police raided their families’ homes in Jerusalem, witnesses said. Police declined to comment.
An International Red Cross vehicle reportedly carrying hostages released by Hamas crosses the Rafah border point in the Gaza Strip towards Egypt on Friday. Source: Getty / AFP
The Israeli military said the released hostages underwent an initial medical assessment inside Israeli territory before being taken to Israeli hospitals to be reunited with their families.
“We have just completed the return of the first batch of our hostages. Children, their mothers and other women. Each and every one of them is a world in itself,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“But I stress to you, the families, and to you, citizens of Israel: we are committed to returning all our hostages.”
For the families of Palestinian detainees freed by Israel, Friday brought relief tinged with sadness at the fighting that is set to continue in Gaza after the expiry of a four-day truce.
“There is no real joy, even this little joy we feel as we wait,” said Sawsan Bkeer, the mother of 24-year-old Palestinian prisoner Marah Bkeer, jailed for eight years on knife and assault charges in 2015.
Marah Bkeer (left) a Palestinian detained in Israeli prison for eight years and released on Friday. Source: Getty / AFP
“We are still afraid to feel happy and at the same time, we do not have it in us to be happy due to what is happening in Gaza,” she said.
The names of the Israeli hostages were released after they were freed. Those released include 13 Israeli citizens, some of whom have dual citizenship, in addition to 10 Thai citizens and a Filipino citizen.
They included four children accompanied by four family members as well as five other elderly women.
Corinne Moshe, daughter-in-law of 72-year-old Adina Moshe, said her husband and his siblings were waiting at a hospital to be reunited with their mother.
“I miss her very, very much, I want her to be back already. I want to have dinner with her and the entire family again,” she said.
“Grandmother is a strong woman. She raised almost all the children of Kibbutz Nir Oz.”
Israeli commanders have vowed to free all the hostages as they prepare to pursue the campaign in Gaza launched in the wake of the Hamas attack, in which 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed, according to Israeli tallies.
Around 14,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and the ground operation launched last month and the military says it is preparing for the next stage of the operation once the truce ends.
More than 100 more Palestinian prisoners are due to be released over the coming four days and more may be freed if the truce is extended.
US President Joe Biden said there was a real chance of extending the truce and that the pause in fighting was a critical opportunity to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said 137 trucks of goods were offloaded in Gaza on Friday, the biggest humanitarian convoy received since 7 October.
Earlier on Friday, combat between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters halted for the first time in seven weeks.
No big bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks were reported, although Hamas and Israel both accused each other of sporadic shootings and other violations.
Both said the war would resume on full throttle as soon as the truce was over.
The significant escalation is the latest boiling point in a long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, gaining power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Hamas’s stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. Some countries list only its military wing as a terrorist group.
Other countries voted against a UN resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety, as a terrorist organisation.
Hamas has said throughout the truce its “fingers remain on the trigger”. Israel has said the conflict will continue until all the hostages are freed and Hamas is eliminated.
In Khan Younis town in southern Gaza, streets filled with people venturing out of home and shelters into a landscape of buildings flattened into heaps of rubble.
Displaced families with small children carried belongings in plastic bags, hoping to return at least temporarily to homes they had abandoned earlier in the war.
“I am now very happy, I feel at ease. I am going back to my home, our hearts are rested,” said Ahmad Wael, smiling as he walked carrying a mattress balanced on his head.
“I am very tired of sitting without any food or water. There (at home) we can live, we drink tea, make bread.”
