Israel and Hamas at war, day 51 | Seventeen hostages released by Hamas

The Israeli army announced on Sunday that the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas had handed over 14 Israeli hostages and three foreigners to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

This is the third group of hostages released in three days, following a truce agreement between Hamas and Israel according to which a total of 50 Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 will be able to return home, against the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas also said it had released a Russian hostage “in response to the efforts” of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his “support for the Palestinian cause”.

At the same time, long convoys of international aid continued to enter on Sunday from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, which was relentlessly shelled until Friday by the Israeli army in retaliation for the bloody attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7.

Despite the truce, which offers a first respite to the population of Gaza, the humanitarian situation in the territory is “dangerous” and the needs “unprecedented”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Sunday. .

A sign of the fragility of the truce, Saturday’s releases were delayed by several hours, with Hamas accusing Israel of not respecting the terms of the agreement concluded on Wednesday under the aegis of Qatar, with the support of the United States. and Egypt.

“Psychological warfare”

Israeli army spokesperson Doron Spielman, for his part, spoke of a “delaying tactic” by the Islamist movement as part of a “psychological war”.

Hamas handed over 26 Israeli hostages, as well as 15 foreigners not affected by the truce agreement, detained in Gaza, to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Friday and Saturday, while Israel released 78 Palestinian prisoners.

Beyond the first four days of truce, the release of “ten additional hostages will lead to an additional day of break,” said the Israeli government.

On Saturday evening, 13 Israelis and four Thais finally returned to Israel via Egypt.

Among them was Maya Regev, 21, kidnapped with her 18-year-old brother while trying to flee the Tribe of Nova music festival attacked by Hamas fighters at dawn on October 7. A video posted on social media showed the young woman and her brother tied up in the back of a pick-up.

“I’m very happy that Maya is about to join us. Nevertheless, I am heartbroken because my son Itay is still a prisoner of Hamas in Gaza,” his mother Mirit said, as quoted by the Hostage Families Forum.

In total, 364 people were killed by Hamas during the Tribe of Nova attack, which became one of the symbols of the October 7 massacre which traumatized Israel.

“Take Them Out of Hell”

A 9-year-old Israeli-Irish girl, Emily, kidnapped with a friend and her mother in Kibbutz Beeri, was also released on Saturday, after spending her birthday in captivity on November 17.

In Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday evening in Hostages Square. “Get them out of hell,” one banner read.

The army estimated the total number of hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 at 240. According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed during the attack.

In retaliation, Israel promised to “eliminate” Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, relentlessly bombing the Palestinian territory and launching a ground offensive on October 27, until the truce. .

In the Gaza Strip, 14,854 people, including 6,150 under the age of 18, were killed by Israeli strikes, according to the Hamas government.

Late Saturday, Israel announced that it had released a second group of 39 Palestinian prisoners, all women and young people under the age of 19, like the day before.

In total, 6,600 Palestinians are incarcerated in Israeli prisons, according to the Prisoners’ Club, a Palestinian NGO defending prisoners.

In the occupied West Bank, convoys of cars flying flags of the various Palestinian movements, led by Hamas, paraded through the streets, escorting an ICRC bus which was transporting the released detainees.

In East Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel, the celebrations were more discreet.

Israa Jaabis, 39, the most famous prisoner on the list, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for detonating a gas canister she was carrying in the trunk of her car at a roadblock in 2015, injuring a police officer .

His photo in an Israeli court, raising his withered fingers, his face partly burned, is regularly brandished to illustrate the suffering of Palestinian prisoners. “I am ashamed to speak of rejoicing when all of Palestine is hurt,” she said.

The Israeli army’s chief of staff, General Herzi Halevi, warned that his soldiers “will resume attacking Gaza as soon as the truce ends.”

Hamas, for its part, announced 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.

“We swear to God that we will continue their path,” said the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

“200 trucks per day”

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.

On Saturday, 248 trucks loaded with aid were able to enter the Gaza Strip, according to the UN.

On Sunday, part of the cargoes were to be transported to the north and Gaza City, like the day before, where “there is neither drinking water nor food”, declared a spokesperson for UNRWA in Gaza, Adnan. Abu Hasna.

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

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 Gazans 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 continued to receive many wounded evacuated from the north, where almost all health establishments were 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.