The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be back on track early yesterday after the release of a second group of militant-held hostages and Palestinians from Israeli prisons, but the swap followed an hourslong delay that underscored the truce’s fragility.
The exchange was delayed on Saturday evening after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement, which has brought the first significant pause in seven weeks of war marked by the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades, vast destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip, and a hostage crisis that has shaken Israel.
Qatar and Egypt, which mediate with Hamas, announced late on Saturday that the obstacles to the exchange had been overcome. The militants released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners.
Photo: AFP
Thousands of people gathered in central Tel Aviv late on Saturday to call for the release of all the estimated 240 people captured by Hamas in its Oct. 7 rampage across southern Israel, which ignited the war.
They accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring them back.
Pressure from the hostages’ families has sharpened the dilemma faced by the country’s leaders, who seek to eliminate Hamas as a military and governing power while returning all the captives.
Photo: AFP
The four-day ceasefire, which began Friday, was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US. Hamas is to release at least 50 Israeli hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners. All are women and minors.
Israel has said the truce could be extended by an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed, but has vowed to quickly resume its offensive once it ends.
Israel early yesterday said that it had received a new list of hostages slated to be released later in the day, in the third of four scheduled swaps.
In a separate development, Hamas announced that one of its top commanders, Ahmed al-Ghandour, had been killed, without providing further details.
Al-Ghandour was in charge of northern Gaza and a member of Hamas’ top military council, and is the highest-ranking militant known to have been killed in the fighting.
Al-Ghandour, believed to have been abvout 56 years old, had survived at least three Israeli attempts on his life, and helped plan a cross-border attack in 2006 in which Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier, said the Counter Extremism Project, a Washington-based advocacy group.
Hamas said he was killed along with three other senior militants, including Ayman Siam, who Israel says was in charge of Hamas’ rocket-firing unit.
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