Israel and Hamas at war, day 51 | New releases of hostages and prisoners

Seventeen hostages, including 14 Israelis, held in the Gaza Strip for seven weeks, were released on Sunday on the third day of truce in the war between Hamas and Israel, which released 39 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

Also on Sunday, long convoys of international aid continued to enter the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip from Egypt under the truce agreement brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt and entered into force in 49^e day of the war.

Among the hostages released on Sunday was a four-year-old girl with American nationality, named Abigail, welcomed American President Joe Biden.

Another ex-hostage, Elma Avraham, an Israeli octogenarian, was airlifted to a hospital in southern Israel where she is in serious condition, said Shlomi Kodesh, director of Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, specifying that her prognosis vital was engaged.

A Russian-Israeli, who is not part of the exchange agreement and whose release was negotiated directly by Moscow, was released according to Hamas “in response” to “support for the Palestinian cause” from Russian President Vladimir Poutine.

Three Thai hostages, also outside the exchange agreement, were also released.

These releases, announced by the Israeli army, bring to 58 the total number of hostages held in Gaza released since Friday, including 18, the vast majority Thais, not affected by the agreement.

“Until Victory”

In total, 117 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons were released at the same time, including 39 on Sunday evening, according to a ratio of one hostage for three prisoners defined by the agreement.

White buses from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took the freed Palestinian prisoners to Ramallah and Beitunia, in the occupied West Bank, greeted by crowds brandishing Palestinian flags, Hamas and other Palestinian factions. Others joined their families in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli army estimated at 240 the total number of hostages taken to Gaza on October 7, during the bloody attack carried out by Hamas on Israeli territory. According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed in this attack.

In retaliation, Israel promised to “eliminate” the Palestinian Islamist movement which took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007 and was classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.

Until the truce came into force on Friday, Israel had relentlessly bombed the Palestinian territory since October 7, where it launched a ground offensive on October 27.

“We are doing everything possible to recover the kidnapped people, and we will eventually recover them all,” promised Mr. Netanyahu, the first Israeli head of government to visit Gaza since the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territory in 2005.

The Israeli leader announced in the evening that he had spoken with Joe Biden, who said on Sunday that he hoped that the four-day truce due to end on Monday could continue “beyond tomorrow”.

“Agree to extend the truce”

France hopes that the truce in Gaza will last until the release of “all the hostages”, for her part declared its Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna.

A source close to Hamas told AFP that the Palestinian movement had “informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators” that the armed groups holding Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip had “agreed to extend the current truce from two to four days “.

The agreement provides for the exchange of 50 Hamas hostages for 150 Palestinian prisoners during the four days of this truce, which can be extended. Beyond the first four days, the release of “ten additional hostages will lead to an additional day of break,” Israel said.

Around 7,000 Palestinians are incarcerated in Israeli prisons, according to the Prisoners’ Club, a Palestinian NGO defending prisoners.

Hamas also announced on Sunday the death on an unspecified date, during the Israeli offensive, of five leaders of the movement, including the military commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade, Ahmed al-Ghandour, considered a “terrorist” by the United States since 2017.

“200 trucks per day”

The truce offered respite to Gazans, but the humanitarian situation in the territory is “dangerous” and the needs “unprecedented”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Sunday.

The truce agreement also includes the entry of humanitarian aid and fuel into Gaza, where Israel has imposed a total siege since October 9. These cargoes, whose entry from Egypt is subject to the Israeli green light, have been arriving in recent weeks in dribs and drabs.

Since Friday, 248 trucks loaded with aid have been able to enter, according to the UN.

On Sunday, part of the cargoes, like the day before, were to be transported to the north and Gaza City, where “there is neither drinking water nor food”, an UNRWA spokesperson told AFP. Gaza, Adnan Abou Hasna.

“We would have to send 200 trucks per day for at least two months to meet the needs,” he added.

“It’s the third day of truce, they are talking about bringing aid and fuel but I have been at the gas station for nine hours and it is still closed,” lamented Bilal Diab, a Palestinian interviewed in Khan Younes by AFP.

The Israeli army considers the northern third of the Gaza Strip to be a combat zone housing the center of Hamas’s infrastructure. She ordered the population to leave and forbade anyone from returning.

Despite this warning, thousands of displaced Gaza residents took advantage of the truce to try to return home to the north.

In the city of Gaza transformed into a field of ruins, residents, some dragging thin bundles, wandered through the dust, between piles of rubble, the streets lined with devastated buildings, according to AFP images.

Others, from the north, have headed south, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are already massed.

Overwhelmed hospitals in the south of the Gaza Strip continue to receive many wounded evacuated from the north, where almost all health establishments are at a standstill.

More than half of the territory’s housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN, and 1.7 million people have been displaced, out of 2.4 million inhabitants.