Hamas fighters were yesterday set to release a second group of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, officials said, as a truce largely held in the devastated Gaza Strip after seven weeks of war that has resulted in thousands of deaths.
Israeli prison authorities said that 42 Palestinian inmates, male and female, would be freed under the terms of the agreement, which mandates exchanges at a ratio of three to one.
Hamas provided mediators Egypt and Qatar a list of 14 hostages to be released that had been passed along to Israel, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: AFP / HO / Hamas Media Office
A second Egyptian official confirmed the details.
The transfers follow an initial exchange on Friday, the first day of a four-day truce that largely silenced weapons on both sides.
The second day of the truce appeared to be holding. Only a small plume of gray smoke rose over northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s air and ground offensive against Hamas, an AFPTV livecam showed.
Photo: Screengrab from AFPTV via AFP
On Friday, Hamas released 24 hostages, according to Qatar and an official Israeli list.
They included 13 Israelis — all of whom were women and children, including some dual citizens — and 10 Thais and one Filipino who were unexpectedly freed.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Kittiya Thuengsaeng in Thailand, who thought her 28-year-old boyfriend had been killed by Hamas.
Then she saw a photograph of Wichai Kalapt after his release.
“I had a chat with him in the morning. He was still smiling. He told me he was safe,” she said.
Hamas fighters snatched about 240 captives when they broke through Gaza’s militarized border with Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.
A two-minute video released by Hamas showed masked militants with rifles, wearing military fatigues and the green headband of the Islamist movement’s armed wing, handing hostages over to the Red Cross.
Israel in turn freed 39 Palestinian women and children from its prisons.
In Tel Aviv, people applauded and held Israeli flags as helicopters flew in the freed captives. Elsewhere in the city, the smiling faces of freed hostages were projected onto the walls of an art museum with the message: “I’m home.”
“Today we are excited about the returnees, but I want us not to forget all those who have not yet returned,” Yael Adar, daughter-in-law of former hostage Yaffa Adar, 85, told Israel’s Ynet news Web site.
At Wolfson Medical Center, which received five elderly female hostages, Shoshi Goldner, a doctor, said “there was no one in the room that could hold his feelings and stop crying.”
About 215 hostages remain in Gaza, although in many cases it is unknown if they are dead or alive, Israeli army spokesman Doron Spielman said.
Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 hostages during the truce in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel’s army early yesterday said that it downed a surface-to-air missile launched from Lebanon toward an Israeli drone. In response, the army said Israeli war planes also struck infrastructure of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with Hamas, both of which are backed by Iran.
An Israeli-owned ship sustained minor damage in a suspected attack by an Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean on Friday, a US defense official confirmed yesterday.
Additional reporting by AP
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