Israel-Hamas war: Second group of hostages to be freed
Hamas fighters have delayed the release of a second wave of hostages after the first group of women and children were freed, some too weak to even walk.
Hamas fighters have delayed the release of a new wave of hostages Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners until Israel complies with a truce agreement, in a bitter blow to relatives.
The second group was set to be released from Hamas custody at around 4pm local time, but two hours later IDF announced the hostages were being transferred to the Red Cross. Shortly after, Hamas claimed that the release was being delayed due to “Israeli violations” of a ceasefire deal.
The Palestinian militant group’s armed wing said the issues of aid deliveries to the northern Gaza Strip and the selection criteria for prisoner releases were holding up the handover.
Israel on Saturday denied that it had violated the truce agreement and vowed to continue the war to eliminate Hamas when the pause in fighting ends.
“We will return immediately at the end of the ceasefire to attack Gaza,” Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said.
“We will also do this in order to dismantle Hamas, also to create a great deal of pressure to return as quickly as possible and as many abductees as possible, every last one of them.”
The swap is being orchestrated as part of a temporary Israel-Gaza truce.
A four-day ceasefire came into effect on Friday and largely silenced the guns on both sides.
Israeli prison authorities said 42 Palestinian inmates – both male and female – would be freed under the terms of the agreement, which mandates exchanges at a ratio of three to one.
An Israeli official source said 14 hostages would be handed over.
It comes after video emerged of the first group of terrified women and children being handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross.
The group included 13 Israeli hostages, 10 Thais and one Filipino, and Israel in turn freed 39 women and children from its prisons.
“It’s only a start, but so far it’s gone well,” US President Joe Biden told reporters in Massachusetts.
In the footage an elderly woman could be seen being carried by a Hamas soldier the short distance between the two vehicles, unable to walk.
Another looked visibly distressed as she was ushered by Hamas towards the Red Cross.
A young boy, nine-year-old Ohad Munder, could be seen being led towards Red Cross medical staff.
Home 💙
— Israel ישר×ל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) November 25, 2023
9 year old Ohad sees his father for the first time after being held hostage in Gaza.
We will not stop until every one of the hostages is reunited with their families. pic.twitter.com/OwnIXsHN42
Young Ohad could be seen looking bemused and scared as he was cuddled by a hooded Hamas fighter wearing a green bandana and combat fatigues.
The boy’s family had pleaded for him to be released in mid-October as they feared he would spend his ninth birthday in the Hamas’ grips.
Devastatingly, football-loving Ohad did just that.
The youngster’s mum, Keren Munder, 54, could be seen following closely behind him today.
A two-year-old girl was also among the group.
Hostages freed in temporary truce
The truce, mediated by Qatar, is expected to see a total of 50 hostages released during a four-day pause in fighting.
Soldiers have been told not to answer questions from recently released child hostages such as “where's mum?” to avoid “overwhelming” them before they get to a place of safety.
The advice comes as 24 out of an expected initial tranche of 50 plus hostages was released in Gaza. Hamas is thought to hold 240 people it snatched during the massacre on October 7.
Those released age in range from two to 85. They include mum Dorn Katz-Asher, 34, and her children Aviv, 2, and Raz, 5, and another mum Danielle Aloni, 44, and he daughter Emilia aged 9.
At around 4pm local time (1am Saturday AEST) 10 Thai hostages were freed. Minutes later, 13 Israeli hostages and one Philippines citizen were also freed. All of them were moved across the border to Egypt by the Red Cross.
Egypt said the Thai releases was down to “intensive efforts” on its part. The 13 Israelis released followed equally intense negotiations between Israel, Hamas and The Gulf nation of Qatar which has played a key role in negotiations.
Qatar said the group of 13 hostages released on Friday would be women and children.
Over the four days, at least 50 hostages are expected to be freed, leaving an estimated 190 in the hands of Palestinian militants.
In exchange, 150 Palestinians prisoners are expected to be freed from prison in Israel.
The releases are coinciding with a four day pause in the conflict which has been raging for 48 days and killed thousands.
It’s been seen by some as a “sign of hope” in a brutal conflict.
Palestinian prisoners to be released
The freed Israel hostages were taken to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
From there they will be checked over in Egyptian hospitals and many will see their families for the first time in more than a month.
They will then be transferred back to Israel either via a road crossing between Egypt and Israel or by helicopter.
Hamas has said the prisoners freed from Israeli jails in return will include 24 women and 15 children. Most of those reside in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian prisoners will be freed from three jails then taken to the Ofer military camp near the Beitunia checkpoint on buses, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
‘A sign of hope’
In the West Bank, the BBC reported on people crowded around the Beitunia checkpoint where some of the prisoners are expected to be freed.
“It’s a sign of hope for Palestinians and Israelis that the ceasefire will continue and the killing will stop,” Mohammed Khatib said.
“We would have liked this to happen without the hostages taken by Hamas but without them, Israel would not let these people out.”
‘Where’s mum?’
Israel’s welfare ministry has issued gut wrenching guidelines about how to deal with recently released hostages, including children.
Soldiers have been told not to answer if a child, held hostage for seven weeks, asks about his or her parents.
“Children will ask questions such as, ‘Where’s Mum? Where’s Daddy?’ Soldiers should not answer these questions, even if they know the answers. Any questions should be answered along the lines of, ‘Sweetheart, I’m sorry, I don’t know. My job is to bring you to Israel to a safe place, where people you know will be waiting for you and will answer all your questions,’” the guidelines, seen by CNN said.
Soldiers and other staff are told to not “verbally overwhelm” hostage children.
“The use of simple words and short sentences is important. It is important to convey that we are open and able to hear and talk about difficult things.”
The truce has triggered a mass movement of thousands of Gazans who had sought refuge in schools and hospitals from relentless Israeli bombardment begun after unprecedented attacks on October 7 by Hamas militants.
“I’m going home,” Omar Jibrin, 16, told AFP after he emerged from a hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip where he and eight family members had sought refuge.
For Khaled al-Halabi, the truce is “a chance to breathe” after nearly seven weeks of war that began when Hamas broke through Gaza’s militarised border to kill, according to Israeli officials, about 1,200 people and seize around 240 Israeli and foreign hostages.
Mr Halabi had taken refuge in Rafah but is from Gaza City in the north, much of which has been reduced to rubble.
Israel’s retaliatory air, artillery and naval strikes alongside a ground offensive have killed about 15,000 people, the Hamas government in Gaza said.
Hopes for longer-term
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, expressed hope in Geneva that the pause “leads to a longer-term humanitarian ceasefire for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and beyond.”
The agreement came after weeks of talks involving Israel, Palestinian militant groups, Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
According to the UN, 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are estimated to have been displaced by the fighting.
Now, thousands of them are trying to get home.
In Khan Yunis, they loaded belongings onto carts, strapped them to car roofs, or slung bags over their shoulders, crowding streets to return to their homes from temporary shelters.
Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets warning people that the war is not over and it is “very dangerous” to return north, the focus of Israel’s military campaign.
But Abd el-Salam Matar, in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, said he wanted to go back to Gaza City.
“I hope I can reach it,” he said. “We don’t know if our homes still stand, but we hope.”
The truce was also a chance for some Palestinians to return to Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
Further north, on the Lebanon-Israel border, calm also returned after regular deadly exchanges of fire, primarily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. The Lebanese movement, like Hamas, is backed by Iran.
Carefully prepared
AFP has confirmed the identities of 210 of the roughly 240 hostages. At least 35 of those seized were children, with 18 of them aged 10 or under at the time.
Hamas earlier released four women and Israeli forces rescued another. Two other captives, including a woman soldier, were found dead by Israeli troops in Gaza.
Maayan Zin, whose eight- and 15-year-old daughters Ela and Dafna are among the hostages, posted on social media platform X that she had been informed their names were not included.
“This is incredibly difficult for me; I long for their return,” she wrote.
-with The Sun and AFP
Originally published as Israel-Hamas war: Second group of hostages to be freed
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