(Rafah) Two American women kidnapped on October 7 were released Friday by Hamas after mediation from Qatar, a first “ray of hope” for the approximately 200 hostages still held in Gaza, on October 14e day of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
The two women, a mother and her daughter, were handed over by Hamas at the border and have arrived in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Friday evening in a press release. Hamas, for its part, published a video in which we can see the two hostages released and taken care of by staff from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Hamas had earlier announced their release for “humanitarian reasons”, after “mediation from Qatar”, a country to which it is known to be close. He said in a press release “to work with all the mediators involved to implement the movement’s decision to close the civilian (hostage) file when security circumstances allow.”
US President Joe Biden said he was “overjoyed”, thanking Qatar and Israel for their “partnership” in the operation, his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stressing that all the hostages “must be released immediately and unconditionally” during a press conference.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hailed these first releases as a “ray of hope”. “We are extremely relieved that they can be reunited with their families after two weeks of anguish,” he said in a statement.
More than 1,400 people were killed on October 7 in Israel by Hamas commandos, the majority of them civilians who were shot, burned alive or died of mutilation on the day of their attack, according to the Israeli authorities.
Around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the counter-offensive which allowed Israel to regain control of the attacked areas, according to the Israeli army.
Hamas kidnapped 203 hostages, including nationals from more than twenty countries, according to the Israeli army, which estimated Friday that “the majority” of them were “alive”.
On the Palestinian side, 4,137 people were killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which has controlled the territory since 2007. Amid the rubble, the 2.4 million inhabitants lack water, food , medicine and electricity, and more than a million of them have been displaced.
PHOTO MAHMUD HAMS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Displaced people gather for Friday noon prayers in the courtyard of a UN-run school in Khan Younes.
“We will continue our dialogue with the Israelis and Hamas”, for “the release of all civilian hostages […] with the ultimate goal of defusing the current crisis and restoring peace,” commented Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majid Al-Ansari from Doha.
International aid
No release, however, on Friday for the entry of the first international aid convoys expected by the besieged and bombed Gazans, a question for them “of life and death”, according to the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, who visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing on Friday.
The first shipment is expected to arrive on Saturday “at the earliest,” said Martin Griffiths, in charge of emergency humanitarian situations at the UN.
In Washington, Joe Biden estimated on Friday that “the first 20 trucks” of aid would arrive “in the next 24 to 48 hours”.
Israel, which imposed a strict siege on the Palestinian territory, authorized, at the request of the United States, the entry of aid via the Rafah border crossing, the only exit from Gaza into the world that it does not control . On the condition that it only happens to “civilians”.
But the first expected delivery is only a “drop in the ocean of needs,” the emergency director of the World Health Organization said in Geneva.
PHOTO ARCHIVES REUTERS
Dozens of trucks waiting at the Egyptian border, near the Rafah crossing point
Dozens of dual-national Palestinians are also waiting in vain in Rafah to be able to flee Gaza.
Israel, which has vowed to wipe out Hamas, is still preparing for a ground offensive in Gaza after the deadliest attack in its history.
After the “military campaign” of airstrikes and “later maneuvers aimed at neutralizing Hamas terrorists and infrastructure”, there will be “low-intensity operations to eliminate the last pockets of resistance”, unfolded Friday the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a meeting at the ministry.
“Summit for Peace”
Ultimately, Israel is considering among the possible scenarios “handing over the keys” of the Gaza Strip to a third party which could be Egypt, without any guarantee that Cairo accepts this scenario which has been postponed for decades, said a source in Israeli Foreign Ministry to AFP.
“I am afraid that the current destruction will follow a clear plan, that people will not find a place to live and that this will cause a second Nakba,” worries Omar Ashour, a retired general, in Gaza, referring to the expulsion of approximately 760,000 Palestinians upon the creation of Israel.
To try to find a solution, Cairo will host a “peace summit” on Saturday, attended by several heads of state, as well as the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
The United States, for its part, deployed two aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean, to dissuade Iran or Lebanese Hezbollah, two allies of Hamas, from getting involved in the conflict.
“We are ready”
In the north of Israel, which is emptying of its inhabitants, Israeli soldiers are deployed en masse near the border with Lebanon, in the event of a second front against Hezbollah.
If the pro-Iranian movement “decides to move or do anything, we are ready,” a reservist told AFP, as exchanges of fire increased on Friday in the border area between Israel and Lebanon. .
French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that his government had “passed messages very directly” to Hezbollah to avoid an escalation of the conflict.
PHOTO JALAA MAREY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Members of the Israeli security forces in the town of Kiryat Shmona, near the border in the north of the country
Anger is still brewing in Arab and Muslim countries. On Friday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated from Cairo to Baghdad via Tunis, Beirut and Tehran to support the Palestinians and denounce Western support for Israel.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan have condemned “collective punishment” inflicted on Gazans.
The NGO Human Rights Watch called on Western countries to condemn “Israel’s brutal disregard for the lives of civilians in Gaza”, as well as their condemnations of “Russian atrocities in Ukraine and Hamas atrocities in Israel”.