In exchange, 39 Palestinian “women and children” were released from Israeli prisons. Unlike Qatar, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin spoke of the release of twelve Thai hostages.
Israeli security circles also spoke of 13 Israeli hostages being handed over to Israeli security forces. According to official information, they include four children and six elderly women. This emerges from a list that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office published on Friday. The children were three girls and one boy, aged between two and nine. Six women over the age of 70 also managed to return home.
The list lists the freed hostages by name. They included a 34-year-old mother and her two daughters aged two and four, an 85-year-old woman and members of three generations of a family: a grandmother and her daughter and grandson. There were no men among the freed hostages.
In the evening, Netanyahu announced as his goal the return of all people kidnapped by Hamas. “We are determined to bring back all our hostages,” Netanyahu said. “This is one of the aims of the war and we are determined to achieve all the aims of the war.” It was also reported that none of the released Israelis were in mortal danger.
The Foreign Ministry in Vienna welcomed the release of “13 innocent women and children” on Friday night at the X. “After weeks of suffering, they will finally be reunited with their families.” Now, full implementation of the agreement is crucial. “This important first step must be followed by the release of all hostages,” the post said.
US President Joe Biden called for a way out of the conflict. The “chances are real” that the ceasefire, initially expected to last four days, could be extended, Biden said on Friday in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He also spoke out in favor of “renewing” efforts to find a two-state solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Biden called the release of the first hostages a “start.” French head of state Emmanuel Macron also welcomed the releases. However, none of the hostages, who also have French citizenship, were among them. Your family members can “count on our determination”, Macron assured X.
As part of a four-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that began Friday morning, a total of 50 of the roughly 240 Hamas hostages will be released. In exchange, 150 Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli prisons.
The hostages were taken by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to the Rafah border crossing, between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt. From there they were to be brought back to Israel. Israel and Hamas reached an agreement after long negotiations.
The handover of the Israeli hostages was intensely prepared. Trauma specialists and Israeli doctors were waiting for them, as well as specially trained soldiers to ensure their safety.
On October 7, hundreds of fighters from Hamas, which the US and EU classify as a terrorist organization, entered Israel and committed atrocities there, mainly against civilians, including numerous women and children. According to the Israeli government, around 1,200 people were killed and around 240 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
In response, Israel began massive air and ground strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip. According to Hamas figures, which cannot be independently verified, more than 14,800 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since then.
Meanwhile, according to the radical Islamic group Hamas, Israel withdrew from the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza city. Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kudra announced this on Friday. The Israeli army did not initially respond to an AFP request.
The Israeli army spent about a week on the premises of the Al-Shifa hospital, which was suspected to be an operations center for the Palestinian radical Islamic organization Hamas. On Sunday, the army said it found a tunnel 55 meters long, ten meters deep beneath the clinic and a cache of weapons. On Thursday, Israeli forces arrested the head of Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmija.
Since the start of the Israeli military operation, most of the approximately 2,300 patients, as well as displaced staff and civilians, have been evacuated from the hospital. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “extremely concerned” about the remaining 100 patients and staff at the hospital.