The war between Israel and Hamas this Saturday marked the second of four days of ceasefire with obvious signs of fragility. It is clear that any spark could blow up the entente sealed on Wednesday. On the one hand, this led to the exchange of 17 hostages (13 Israelis and four Thais) for 39 Palestinian prisoners (33 minors and six women) being delayed by several hours. Hamas reported Saturday afternoon that it was delaying the exchange because Israel was not honoring the cessation of hostilities agreement and represented “many violations.” Its armed wing, the Ezedin al-Qassam Brigades, paralyzed the process in the afternoon, when, according to Israeli military sources, the release of hostages scheduled for Saturday in the Gaza Strip was already underway. Late in the day, both Hamas and the Israeli army reported that the hostages were on their way to the Rafah crossing, the border between Gaza and Egypt, which is controlled by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Israel Prison Service later reported that Palestinian prisoners had also been released.
Here too, Qatar, Egypt and the United States came to the rescue as the main mediators. This enabled the abandonment of bombing raids in the Gaza Strip, which Israel threatened to resume at midnight, to be maintained; that the exchange of prisoners from both sides would finally take place and the distribution of food and humanitarian aid in the north of the Gaza Strip would be accelerated. It was precisely this insufficient drainage into the area most affected by the conflict that was the Islamists’ first argument for slowing down before the water returned to normal late at night.
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The government of Qatar had previously announced the release of 13 Israeli hostages and seven foreigners in Gaza, which ultimately amounted to four, as well as the release by Israel of 39 Palestinians, six women and 33 minors. In these hours of uncertainty, the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, spoke to the President of the United States, Joe Biden.
Despite Hamas’ complaints, the Islamist movement that governs Gaza remained willing to accept mediators’ proposals and push for “new agreements,” one of its political leaders, Taher Al-Nunu, told the Qatari network Al Jazeera. the militia. In response to the massacre of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, destroying the armed Islamist group remains Israel’s main goal in the war.
Extension of the ceasefire
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Biden also has hopes that the current ceasefire can be extended. A delegation from Qatar arrived in Israel this Saturday, in what some interpret as an attempt to move in this direction. Egypt also announced with some optimism that it was working on extending the ceasefire by a day or two and that the exchange of hostages for prisoners could be larger than initially proposed – the agreement reached on Wednesday calls for the exchange of 50 prisoners for 150 of them Kidnapped by Hamas. Israeli territory.
Hamas, which reported days ago the deaths of 60 of the hostages and that Israeli bombing was preventing it from keeping them all under control, could have located a group of 10 or 20 more abductees in the last few hours. That could pave the way for an extension of the current ceasefire agreement, which ends on Monday. Israel estimates that the fundamentalist militia would be able to release 30 more people than the originally agreed 50 kidnapped people, sources told Haaretz newspaper.
The afternoon, like Friday, was marked by a number of incidents around the Israeli prison of Ofer in Betunia in the occupied West Bank, in which at least two Palestinians were injured by shots fired by soldiers stationed outside the prison. In these facilities, West Bank prisoners are transferred to the Red Cross for final release and reunification with their families at Betunia Town Hall. Others living in East Jerusalem leave an Israeli police station in that city. At the same time, Hamas hands over the hostages to the Red Cross so that this institution, with decades of experience in this exchange, can take them to the Israeli authorities on the Gaza border with Egypt.
The Palestinian enclave, where Israel has killed more than 14,500 people, continues to experience unprecedented scenes over the past 50 days thanks to the ceasefire agreement, marked by the war conflict that began on October 7. Thousands of people crowd the streets, confident that they will not be targeted by the occupying troops. On the Israeli side, the media is publishing the faces of the hostages who have already been released and who have so far been emblazoned on the posters distributed throughout the country with the words “Bring them home.” Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday afternoon to show their support, while thousands more in Jerusalem called for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose role remains in question.
This ceasefire calm gives the people of Gaza more time to stock up and meet the enormous needs they face after more than seven weeks in which they have little access to anything as basic as water, food, medicine, electricity or fuel . A convoy of 59 trucks managed to reach the north of the Gaza Strip with a variety of help. Six were transporting food from the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and 53 belonged to the Red Crescent, this institution’s spokesman, Nebal Farsakh, confirmed to EL PAÍS. “Our teams were able to unload in the north and return to the south of the Gaza Strip without any problems,” he added. It is the largest caravan of its kind to date since the opening of the southern Rafah border crossing on the border with Egypt on October 21st.
According to Israeli authorities, two hundred trucks carrying food, water, medical equipment and materials have entered the Gaza Strip through this point in the last few hours to provide shelter to residents. In addition, four trucks arrived with fuel essential to run generators to deal with the power outage that Israel is punishing the Gaza Strip with, and another four trucks with gas that will allow some Gazans to cook. In any case, the United Nations itself recognizes that the flow of aid distributed, which is much smaller than that which reached the Gaza Strip before the crisis triggered by the war, is inadequate.
The United Nations also reported the evacuation of 21 critical patients from northern Gaza, where the situation in hospitals has been critical for weeks due to the siege and Israeli attacks, according to local health authorities.
Israel has distributed images of meetings of some of the 13 hostages released on Friday with their families after checking at a medical center that they had not suffered significant physical harm. This is the case with little Ohad, nine years old, who runs down the hallway towards his father’s arms. Or little Aviv Asher, two years old, and little Raz, four years old, who were released with their mother Doron while hugging the father of the family, Yoni. A military spokesman admitted that they were speaking to them to obtain information but would not make it public. On the West Bank side, the city of Betunia took part in taking 33 Palestinian prisoners hostage, including women and minors. Six more Palestinians were released in Jerusalem.
On the first day of the ceasefire, on Friday, Hamas released 24 hostages, including 10 Thai employees and one a Filipino. Iran said it intervened on their behalf. At least four people were not on the list of those abducted on October 7, and in one case he was presumed dead by his family, Portal reports. The major Hamas attack of that time still has an exact number of victims that can neither be clarified nor identified, as can be seen from the publications of these days. This is also happening with missing people like Spaniard Iván Illarramendi, who are among the dead weeks after their remains were identified in a slow and laborious process that Israeli authorities carry out with dozens of bodies.
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