Hamas and Israel on Saturday were planning a second hostages-for-prisoners swap, as a temporary pause in the seven-week-old war in Gaza seemed to be holding.
It wasn’t immediately known how many Israelis Hamas intended to free in the latest exchange, and there were conflicting reports about the number of Palestinians to be released.
On Friday, the first day of the temporary cease-fire, Hamas handed over two dozen hostages, including 13 Israelis who were seized as part its Oct. 7 assault on Israel that killed around 1,200 people, Israel says. In exchange, Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners.
In a surprise move, Hamas also freed several foreign workers captured in the attacks — 10 Thais and a Filipino.
More than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the conflict, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Among the Israelis who won freedom on Friday is Hanna Katzir, who the Palestinian Islamic Jihad — a militia group that also took part in last month’s attack on Israel — had earlier said was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Other Israelis released are eight members of three separate families, including four young children. Five captives, including Katzir, are in their 70s and the oldest is 85. Many of the freed hostages came from a single kibbutz, Nir Oz.
Hospitals, where the freed hostages were taken, have reported that they are in generally good condition. Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev, the CEO of Schneider Children’s Medical Center, said the four children, three mothers and a grandmother there “are in the best and most caring hands.”
“Their physical condition is good and they are currently undergoing medical and emotional assessment by the medical and psychosocial teams at Schneider Children’s in a specially designated and private area,” Bron-Harlev said.
As Israeli hostages were being freed and reunited with their families on Friday, there were scenes of celebration in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian prisoners were being handed over. An enormous crowd in the heart of Ramallah gathered, chanting pro-Hamas slogans and waving the militant group’s green flag.
The temporary truce was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. Under the terms of the deal, Israel and Hamas must halt combat operations while at least 50 Israelis and 150 Palestinian prisoners are exchanged in groups each day. Israel says it could extend the cease-fire up to 10 days if Hamas keeps releasing captives.
Meanwhile in Gaza, the pause in fighting has opened the door for the besieged Hamas-controlled territory to receive badly needed food, fuel and other supplies after weeks of bombardment from Israeli warplanes and ground forces. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas. The fighting has displaced nearly half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, according to UNRWA, the U.N. relief agency overseeing Palestinians.
Four tanker trucks each of fuel and cooking gas from aid organizations entered Gaza from Egypt on Saturday. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 200 trucks were dispatched to Gaza and that 137 had been unloaded on Friday, “making it the biggest humanitarian convoy received since October 7.”
With the temporary cease-fire, some Palestinians are feeling safe enough to visit relatives in central and southern Gaza for the first time since the fighting began. Fuel supplies are scarce so they are using cooking oil to power old cars.
However, last month Israel’s military warned Gazans living in the northern half of the territory, which includes Gaza City’s half-million people, to move to the south or risk being killed during Israeli operations.
NPR/YL
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