For the first time in 49 days, Gaza woke up to a different sound. Since 07:00 local time (06:00 Spanish time), with the entry into force of the four-day ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas, the noise of bombings and the advance of Israeli troops has given way to the significant influx of humanitarian aid to a devastated strip, in which many of its population were displaced. The ceasefire is respected by both sides. This ceasefire, whose implementation was delayed by a day, also includes the exchange of 50 Israeli hostages captured in the October 7 attack for 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. A first group of 13 of these hostages have already been released and are back in Israel after being handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza. They are all women, five of them older people and children between the ages of two and nine. In the West Bank, the first 39 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons were released. This also applies to women and minors.
A second group of Gaza prisoners, 10 Thais and one Filipino, whose release took place outside the framework of the Hamas-Israel agreement, have also left the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the release of the 13 Israeli hostages in a video statement. “Each one of them is a whole world,” he explained. He then recalled that the ultimate goal is to achieve the freedom of the remaining hostages. “I insist to you, the families, and to you, the citizens of Israel: we are committed to the return of all of our hostages. “This is one of the objectives of the war and we are determined to achieve all the objectives of the war.” This Friday evening, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, stated in a press conference that “there are real possibilities that the ceasefire in Gaza will extend beyond the agreed four days will be extended beyond that”. “Today is just the beginning, but so far everything has gone well.”
Netanyahu’s office has released the names of the 13 released. These are, for example, Doron Katz-Asher, 34, with his children Raz, four, and Aviv, two; by two other mothers with their children – five and nine years old respectively – and the grandmother of one of the children as well as five other older women, the eldest of them Yaffa Adar. This 85-year-old woman appeared in a Hamas photo on October 7 with a resigned expression on her face as the fundamentalists carried her in a stroller like those used on golf courses.
Before confirming that they were already on its territory, the Israeli army announced that the released people would undergo a medical examination and then be taken to a rehabilitation center. The families of these 13 hostages knew they would be released. The rest are anxiously awaiting the news, especially since the four days of ceasefire and exchange can be extended in the same proportion: one Israeli hostage for three Palestinian prisoners.
In Tel Aviv, what is now called the Square of Hostages and Missing Persons attracted thousands of Israelis throughout the day who came to share their joy over the agreement. They celebrated by singing folk songs or Sabbath songs and playing a piano in tribute to one of the hostages. Especially when they heard the news that the 13 Israeli women and children were already on national territory. The Sabbath table with 240 empty chairs, which was set up in the square a month and a half ago, still serves as a reminder of the missing. Their photos, at which many look and stare with glassy eyes, with a mixture of joy at the pact and concern for the missing, are also accompanied by candles, photos, banners and graffiti such as “Take them home”, “Os we hope” or “Our hearts are trapped in Gaza.”
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One was injured in the West Bank
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Qadura Fares, the Palestinian Commissioner for Prisoners, confirmed that 39 prisoners have been released. Of these, 24 are women and 15 are minors. The West Bank has declared victory with the liberation of this first group of Palestinians. Laith Othman, 17, has returned to the town of Betunia, where Ofer Prison is located, and has been greeted as a hero. He did so by waving a Hamas flag to celebrate having just been released from an Israeli prison. On the surrounding walls, hundreds of residents sang and waved flags of Palestine, Hamas and Fatah, the main faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The first released woman to arrive at the town hall in Betunia, the party’s center, was Sarah Abdallah from Nablus, who was serving an eight-year prison sentence. “Hamas freed me with the agreement and I am extremely proud and grateful,” she said, raising her voice on the steps of City Hall. Abdallah asked to send a message to Yahia Sinwar and Mahamed Deif, the masterminds of the October 7 attack: “I am proud of Sinwar and Deif because they are the only ones who were with us,” she added a group of authorities, including some representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PNA).
The 39 inmates are part of a broader list of 300 prisoners who could potentially be released (if the agreement is extended) that Israel’s Justice Ministry released on Wednesday. Israel defines them as terrorists, but most are convicted by military courts for minor crimes, such as throwing stones at soldiers and settlers and other vague definitions. More than half of the 30 women on the list are instead in prison, charged with crimes such as attempted murder. The ANP estimates the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons at 8,000 following the wave of arrests in East Jerusalem and the West Bank following the October 7 attack: around 2,300.
Unafraid
In Gaza, families of war-displaced Palestinians (80% of the 2.3 million) took to the streets early in the morning to carry belongings to return to their homes or search for loved ones among the rubble. They took the opportunity to walk or forage for food without fear of bombing. Some even came close to the beach. Videos on social media show old bodies being found on the road that connects both ends of the Gaza Strip and where displaced families fled the bombings.
The Israeli army has dropped leaflets in the south of the Gaza Strip, where more than a million people are forcibly displaced from their homes, warning them not to return to their homes in the north because “it is forbidden and dangerous” and the “humanitarian pause started.” limited duration.”
Israel has committed to halting attacks on the Gaza Strip for four days and partially suspending air surveillance tasks. The Hamas militia wants to stop firing projectiles that have “become rare in recent weeks”. With the exception of minor incidents, both parties are adhering to the guidelines after a war in which 14,854 people have died in Gaza so far (including 6,150 minors and around 4,000 women) in response to the massive surprise attack carried out by Hamas on September 17th In Israel October 7th killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Several Palestinians examine an area that was bombed this Friday in Rafah, ahead of the ceasefire that began today. MOHAMMED ABED (AFP)
Humanitarian aid has now begun in a way that has not been the case for more than a month and a half. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a total of 137 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza crossed the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt this Friday. Before the war, an average of more than 400 trucks arrived on weekdays, reports Marc Español.
This aid falls far short of Gaza’s needs, but represents a reprieve for a strip facing a total Israeli blockade (aside from a trickle of humanitarian aid) that has raised the specter of famine or an epidemic like cholera has fueled led to wastewater management systems no longer functioning.
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