2023-11-26 03:18:00
A helicopter transports hostages released from Gaza to a hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel / Photo: Xinhua
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas finally handed over the second contingent of 13 Israeli and 4 Thai hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross, who after a brief visit to Egypt are already in Israel, which in return must release 39 Palestinian prisoners, according to the agreement reached this week, which was on the verge of foundering when the Islamist militia delayed the operation because it understood that the Israelis had “breached” the agreement.
The arrival of the hostages into Israeli territory, confirmed by a joint statement from the Israeli Army and the Shin Bet security service, was the epilogue of a tense day, which began when Hamas announced it was delaying the handover of hostages it took in the Oct. 7 attack “due to Israel’s failure to comply” with a four-day temporary truce agreement to release 50 hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners..
“We delay the release of the second group of prisoners until the occupying party (Israel) complies with the terms of the agreement regarding the entry of trucks with humanitarian aid to the northern Gaza Strip and the agreed standards for the release of the prisoners (Palestinians)”, announced the Ezzedin Al Qasam brigadethe armed wing of Hamas, on its channel on the Telegram messaging network.
Israel immediately denied such non-compliance and called on Hamas to comply with the release of the second group before midnight (19 in Argentina), because after that hour you would resume hostilities and negotiate again without suspending the war that was unleashed in response. to the attack by Hamas in the territory of the Hebrew country.
Photo: AFP.
In that attack, which took the sophisticated Israeli intelligence apparatus by surprise, more than 1,200 people were murdered, the vast majority of them civilians, and more than 240 people were kidnapped, including twenty Argentines.
That attack, which this Saturday marks seven weeks, provoked an open war between Israel and the Islamist group in the Palestinian enclave, where up to nearly 15,000 deaths were recorded, of which 6,100 were children, according to Hamas, which governs the Strip. from Gaza.
When the hostages arrived in their territory on the night of the Middle East, the Israeli Army and the Shin Bet issued a statement in which they indicated that their government “embraces the 17 hostages who are returning home, 13 of our citizens and 4 Thais.” .
In this second contingent there were a greater number of children. The released Mia Regev (21), Noam (17) and Alma (13) Or, Hila Rotem-Shoshani (13) and Emily Hand (9), Shiri (53) and Noga (18) Weiss, Sharon (52) and Noam (12) Avigdoris, Shoshan Haran (67), and Adi (38), Naveh (8) and Yahel (3) Shohams.
Earlier, the Israeli authorities explained that the Palestinian prisoners will be released once the group of hostages released by Hamas have left the Gaza Strip and are correctly identified, according to information collected by the local newspaper The Times of Israel.
Photo: AFP.
The four-day, extendable agreement, reached on Wednesday by Qatar with the support of the United States and Egypt, provides in total for the release of 50 Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza and 150 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
On Friday, armed and uniformed Hamas members handed over 24 hostages (13 Israelis, ten Thais and one Filipino) to the ICRC to be taken to Israel via Egypt.
At first, information circulated that two of those released, Danielle Aloni and her daughter Emilia, had Argentine nationality, but a source from the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires consulted by Télam said that these people have relatives in Argentina. , but they are not citizens of the country.
But from that first batch of freed people, the father of two of the Argentinians who disappeared on October 7, confirmed that they are among the hostages and “that they are alive” and “are fine,” after some freed hostages testified that they had seen.
They are the children of the Argentine-Israeli journalist and educator Itzik Horn, who has lived in Israel for more than 20 years, Yair and Eitan Horn.
“Dear friends, I have to give you very good news. Among the 13 people who were released on Friday, 12 were from Kibbutz Nir Oz, which is the kibbutz from where the boys were taken and from various sources it began to reach me this Saturday the morning that one of the liberated women saw them,” explained Horn in an audio message that Télam had access to.
For its part, Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons.
In the occupied West Bank, scenes of joy accompanied the return of the freed prisoners, welcomed as “heroes” in some areas, with fireworks, Palestinian and Hamas movement flags, reported the AFP news agency.
In East Jerusalem, also occupied by Israel, celebrations were prohibited.
The release of the 13 hostages in the Gaza Strip occurred 49 days after their kidnapping, following the attack by Palestinian militiamen on October 7.
Egypt believes there are “positive signs” for an extension of the truce in Gaza
The Egyptian authorities received “positive signals” from all parties regarding a possible extension of the four-day truce agreed between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, announced the director of the Egyptian State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan.
Rashwan stressed that Egypt maintains extensive contacts with the parties to achieve an extension of the truce that “would involve the release of more hostages in Gaza and more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons,” Al Jazeera television reported, according to the Europa news agency. Press.
Previously, Egyptian sources cited by Israeli television Channel 12 had reported on condition of anonymity of the possibility of an extension of one or two days of the truce to free more hostages.
Israeli public television, Kan, pointed to “positive signs” for a possible expansion.
The ceasefire approved by the Government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu establishes the release by Hamas of 50 of the 240 hostages kidnapped – among whom there are twenty Argentines – during its attacks in Israel on October 7 , which left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians.
In exchange, Israel will make a four-day truce in the offensive it has launched in Gaza against Hamas since the attacks, which have already left some 14,000 Palestinians dead, including some 5,800 children, and 1.7 million displaced.
In addition, Israel will release some 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow an increase in the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which has been under total blockade since October 9, without electricity or fuel for its 2.3 million inhabitants.
Netanyahu was under pressure from the hostages’ families to accept a truce and from the far-right wing of his cabinet to reject it.
The agreement itself provides for extending the truce for another day in exchange for 10 more Hamas hostages. However, a senior Israeli official cited by local media The Times of Israel described the reports of an extension already agreed between the parties as “ridiculous” and “false.” The source considers it “highly unlikely” that an extension of the truce will be agreed upon a day or even hours before its end.
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