UPDATED 2:33 P.M.
GAZA/ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER (Reuters) -Hamas fighters released 24 hostages on Friday during the first day of the war’s first truce, including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers, after guns fell silent across the Gaza Strip for the first time in seven weeks.
The hostages were transferred out of Gaza and handed over to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, accompanied by eight staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a four-car convoy, the ICRC said.
Qatar, which acted as mediator for the truce deal, said 13 Israelis had been released, some with dual nationality, plus 10 Thais and a Filipino. Thirty-nine Palestinian women and children detainees were released from Israeli jails.
“We have just completed the return of the first batch of our hostages. Children, their mothers and other women. Each and every one of them is a world in itself,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “But I stress to you, the families, and to you, citizens of Israel: We are committed to returning all our hostages.”
The Israeli hostages released included four children accompanied by four family members, and five other elderly women.
Corinne Moshe, daughter-in-law of 72-year-old Adina Moshe, said her husband and his siblings were waiting at a hospital to be reunited with their mother. “I miss her very, very much, I want her to be back already. I want to have dinner with her and the entire family again,” she said.
MEDICAL CHECKS FOR RELEASED HOSTAGES
The Israeli military said the released hostages underwent a medical assessment inside Israeli territory before being taken to hospitals to be reunited with their families.
Under the terms of the four-day Israel-Hamas truce, 50 women and children hostages are to be released in return for 150 Palestinian women and children among thousands of detainees in Israeli jails. Israel says the truce could be extended if more hostages are released at a rate of 10 per day.
Those released on Friday were exchanged for 24 jailed Palestinian women and 15 teenagers. In at least three cases, before the prisoners were released, Israeli police raided their families’ homes in Jerusalem, witnesses said. Police declined to comment.
A source briefed on the negotiations said the release of the Thai workers, who were all men, was unrelated to the truce talks and followed a separate track mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
Thai and Filipino farm workers employed in southern Israel were among around 240 hostages taken to Gaza by gunmen when Hamas fighters launched a killing spree on Oct. 7.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on social media that 12 Thai workers had been freed, two more than the figure given by the Qataris. No reason for the discrepancy was given.
GAZANS VENTURE OUT
U.S. President Joe Biden said there was a real chance of extending the truce and that the pause in fighting was a critical opportunity to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said four of those released held German nationality.
“The ceasefire must last as long as possible now to ensure the people of Gaza receive vital goods like medicine, food, water and aid,” she added.
Earlier on Friday, combat between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters halted for the first time in seven weeks.
No big bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks were reported, although Hamas and Israel both accused each other of sporadic shootings and other violations. Both said the war would resume on full throttle as soon as the truce was over.
In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, people ventured out of homes and shelters into a landscape of buildings reduced to rubble. Displaced families carried belongings in plastic bags, hoping to return at least temporarily to the homes they had abandoned.
“I am now very happy, I feel at ease. I am going back to my home, our hearts are rested,” said Ahmad Wael, smiling as he walked carrying a mattress balanced on his head. “I am very tired of sitting without any food or water. There (at home) we can live, we drink tea, make bread.”
Columns of Israeli tanks rolled away from the Gaza Strip’s northern end in the morning, while aid trucks entered from Egypt at the southern end.
The U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) said 137 trucks of goods were offloaded in Gaza on Friday, the biggest humanitarian convoy received since Oct. 7.
Hamas confirmed all hostilities from its forces would cease. But Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing, said in a video message that this was a “temporary truce” and called for an “escalation of the confrontation … on all resistance fronts”, including the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant spoke similarly: “This will be a short pause, at the conclusion of which the war (and) fighting will continue with great might and will generate pressure for the return of more hostages.”
According to Israeli tallies, Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and seized about 240 hostages when they burst across the border fence into southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Since then, Israel has rained bombs on the Hamas-ruled enclave, killing some 14,000 Gazans, around 40% of them children, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, including most people in the northern half of the enclave.
Residents said the Israelis had dropped leaflets warning people not to travel back to the north, and have fired over the heads of some people trying to get back into Gaza City, which Israel ordered evacuated and has pulverised in its ground assault.
James Elder, spokesperson for the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, said from southern Gaza that the agency was pleading for the truce to be made permanent.
“We cannot in all decent conscience go from a four or five day pause into killing of children again.”
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Angus MacSwan, Hugh Lawson and Peter Graff; Editing by Jon Boyle and Grant McCool)
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Updated: 10:23 a.m.
GAZA/ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER (Reuters) -Hamas fighters released 24 hostages on Friday during the first day of the war’s first truce, the Red Cross said, including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers.
Nine hours after guns fell silent for the first time in seven weeks, the International Red Cross said it had begun an operation to facilitate the transfer of hostages in Gaza to Israel in return for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. It later said 24 hostages had been freed in Gaza.
“The deep pain that family members separated from their loved ones feel is indescribable. We are relieved that some will be reunited after long agony,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s regional director for the Near and Middle East.
Israeli media reported that 13 women and children had been handed over to the Red Cross and to an Egyptian security team assisting their release. The Israeli government and Hamas did not immediately confirm this.
In addition to the Israeli women and children due to be released on the first day of the four-day truce, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said in a social media post that a separate group of 12 Thai workers had been freed.
A source briefed on the negotiations said the release of the Thais, who were all men, was unrelated to the truce negotiations and followed a separate track of talks with Hamas mediated by Egypt and Qatar. Thai farmworkers employed in southern Israel were among around 240 hostages dragged back to Gaza by gunmen when Hamas fighters launched a killing spree on Oct. 7.
The source said the number of Thais released could be 11 or 12.
Under the terms of the four-day Israel-Hamas truce, 50 women and children hostages are to be released over four days, in return for 150 Palestinian women and children among thousands of detainees in Israeli jails. Israel says the truce could be extended if more hostages are released at a rate of 10 per day.
The first 13 due to be released on Friday were to be exchanged for 24 Palestinian women and 15 teenagers.
Earlier on Friday, combat between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters halted for the first time in seven weeks under the truce.
No big bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks were reported, although Hamas and Israel both accused each other of sporadic shootings and other violations. Both said the war would resume on full throttle as soon as the truce was over.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus Writing by Hugh Lawson and Peter Graff; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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GAZA/ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER (Reuters) -Thailand said on Friday 12 of its nationals from among hostages captured by Hamas in Israel had been set free and Israeli media reported that a group of women and children were being handed over to the Red Cross, the first hostages to go free under a temporary truce.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said in a social media post that the 12 Thais had been released from captivity in Gaza. There was no further information immediately available about the Thai prisoners, whose release had not previously been announced as one of the terms of an agreed prisoner swap accompanying the first truce of the seven-week-old war.
Israeli media reported that the first group of hostages due to be released under the truce deal had been handed to the Red Cross and to an Egyptian security team. Reuters could not immediately confirm this.
Under the terms of the four-day truce, 13 women and children – out of around 240 hostages captured by Hamas fighters on a killing spree in southern Israel on Oct. 7 – were expected to comprise the first group to be released.
They had been due to be freed with the aid of the Red Cross and an Egyptian security team at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), nine hours after the start of the ceasefire, and to be flown home under military guard.
In exchange, Israel was due to release the first 39 Palestinians from its jails on Friday, among them 24 women and 15 teenagers.
A total of 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed over the four-day truce, though Israel has said the ceasefire could be extended if Hamas continues to release hostages at a rate of at least 10 per day. A Palestinian source has said up to 100 hostages could go free.
(Reporting by Reuters bureausWriting by Hugh LawsonEditing by Peter Graff)
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