what to remember from Friday October 20

This is the first hostage release confirmed by both parties. The Israeli government announced on the evening of Friday October 20 that the two American hostages whose release Hamas had announced earlier in the day had arrived in Israel. It concerns a 59-year-old mother and her 18-year-old daughter. On the humanitarian aid front, the American president Joe Biden estimated that “the first 20 trucks” would enter Gaza “in the next 24 to 48 hours”. Here’s what to remember from the day.

Two Americans taken hostage were able to reach Israel

They were kidnapped on October 7 while visiting the kibbutz (collectivist agricultural village) Nahal Oz. Two American women, a mother and her daughter, were released by Hamas at the end of the day. The military spokesperson for the Islamist movement said in a statement that the two hostages had been released. for humanitarian reasons, following “mediation by Qatar”.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Shoshana Raanan “were freed from the hands of the terrorist organization Hamas”handed over to the Gaza border and headed “towards a meeting point, in a military base in the center of the country, where their family members are waiting for them”.

Joe Biden said to himself “at the height of joy” after this release. The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken called for the American hostages still held by Hamas to also be released.

Some 200 Israeli, foreign or binational hostages were kidnapped in Israel and taken to Gaza by Hamas fighters. The latter said Friday that he was working “with all the mediators involved to implement the movement’s decision to close the civilian (hostage) file when security circumstances permit”.

International aid is awaited in the Gaza Strip

Deprived of everything on the 14th day of the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, the besieged and bombed Gazans are desperately awaiting the entry of the first international aid convoys. A question for them “of life or death”according to the United Nations, which is counting, like Washington, on the start of delivery on Saturday at the earliest.

In Washington, American President Joe Biden estimated on Friday that “the first 20 trucks” help would come “in the next 24 to 48 hours”, after the necessary road repair at the Rafah crossing point, on the Egyptian border. But the entry of 20 trucks is only one “drop of water in the ocean of needs”declared in Geneva the director of emergencies of the World Health Organization (WHO), according to which he “would take 2,000”.

Dozens of dual-national Palestinians are also waiting in vain to be able to flee Gaza. Among them, around fifty French people, according to the Quai d’Orsay. France negotiates with Egypt in order to get them out of the warring territory.Paris will also send “emergency humanitarian aid” In “as soon as possible”notably “in medicine”Emmanuel Macron told a few journalists on Friday.

The French death toll rises to 30

The toll increased by two additional victims. Thirty French people were killed in Hamas attacks in Israel, the international editorial staff of Radio France learned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday. The identifications of those killed prove complicated. “Some take longer than others because bodies have been mutilated”explains the Quai d’Orsay. There are also still seven French people missing.

A French woman was taken away “for sure” by Hamas in Gaza and six other French people are presumed hostages, “without certainty”added Emmanuel Macron on Friday evening in front of journalists, saying “confident” in the channels used “through Qatar” to obtain their release. A little earlier, he had promised the families of French hostages that Paris would do everything “so that they return safe and sound to France”reported the Elysée after this videoconference.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Arab countries

Anger is still brewing in Arab countries, where on Friday, a day of prayer for Muslims, tens of thousands of people demonstrated from Egypt to Jordan via Tunis and Bahrain, to support the Palestinians and denounce Western support for Israel.

Warning of an extension of the conflict, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan, two key players in the Middle East, condemned what they called “collective punishment” inflicted on Gazans.

Cairo will host a “summit for peace”in which several heads of state or government will participate, as well as the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.