Gaza hostage release hits snag
GAZA STRIP, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES—Hamas fighters held back the release of a second group of 17 hostages on Saturday while accusing Israel of violating terms of the fragile four-day truce.
A second group of 13 Israeli and four Thai hostages were supposed to be turned over earlier that day but was stopped after Hamas claimed that Israel was interfering in the selection of prisoners for release and was not allowing aid to reach civilians in northern Gaza.
Israel’s military denied breaching the ceasefire deal and said Hamas was engaging in “psychological warfare.”
The heart-stopping development prompted Qatari and Egyptian negotiators to intervene and convince Hamas to proceed with the release.
Hamas later said it had “responded positively” to Egyptian and Qatari mediators, after they relayed a promise by Israel to “uphold all the conditions of the accord.”
A Palestinian official familiar with the truce efforts played down the threat it could collapse.
“There is no major threat to the agreement. Mediators are dealing with things on daily basis and hopefully the deal will be completed,” the official said.
Hourslong delay
After hours of delay, the hostage-for-prisoner exchange pushed through in a late night operation with Hamas freeing for the first time one of the people snatched during their bloody assault on a music festival.
The second batch of hostages have been returned to Israel and their families.
Red Cross minibuses could be seen ferrying the hostages late at night through Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt ahead of their transfer to Israel, Agence France-Presse (AFP) photo and video images showed.
Among the freed Israelis was 21-year-old Maya Regev, kidnapped by Hamas in their deadly Oct. 7 assault on the Supernova desert rave, according to a forum of the hostages’ families.
Maya Regev and her 18-year-old brother Itay, who was also snatched by Hamas during the festival, were later shown tied up in the back of a pickup truck in a video posted on social media.“I am so excited and happy that Maya is on her way to us now. Nonetheless, my heart is split because my son Itay is still in Hamas captivity in Gaza,” her mother Mirit said in a statement released by the hostage families’ forum.
Also freed was nine-year-old Emily Hand whose family said they were “overjoyed” to embrace her again.
Three to one
“We can’t find the words to describe our emotions after 50 challenging and complicated days,” they said in a statement.
Saturday’s exchange followed an initial swap on Friday when Hamas released 13 Israelis, all of them women and children.
Ten Thais and one Filipino were also unexpectedly freed by Hamas.
Israel in turn released 39 Palestinian women and children from its prisons under an agreement that mandates exchanges at a ratio of three to one.
Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 hostages during the truce in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners, under an agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
The pause in fighting in Gaza opened the way for more aid to Palestinians struggling to survive with shortages of water and other essentials. Israel had placed Gaza under near-total siege.
A total of 61 trucks delivered food, water and humanitarian aid via a “humanitarian passageway” to northern Gaza on Saturday, the United Nations office for humanitarian affairs said.
Another 187 trucks of vital supplies had been sent to aid organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, it said. —reports from AFP, REUTERS
