A second group of 17 hostages held captive in Gaza since their abduction by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel were released late Saturday evening after an hours-long delay under the short-term ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. In return, another 39 Palestinian women and children imprisoned in Israel were also released.
Thirteen Israelis and four Thai nationals were released, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. The office announced that seven Israeli children ages 3 to 16 and six Israeli women ages 18 to 67 were released.
Among those released was nine-year-old Emily Hand, an Israeli-Irish girl who was initially believed to have been killed by Hamas.
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“Emily has returned to us! We cannot find words to describe our feelings after 50 challenging and complicated days,” her family said in a statement to CBS News.
The hostages were initially transferred to Egypt by the Red Cross via the Rafah border in the southern Gaza Strip. The 13 Israeli hostages were then flown to Israel early Sunday morning for medical examination before being reunited with their family.
A convoy of freed Israeli hostages released by Hamas from the Gaza Strip arrives at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, Nov. 26, 2023. They were the second group of Israeli and foreign hostages released by Hamas since the ceasefire began in the Israel-Hamas war. JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images
Their release came after an hours-long delay on Saturday as Hamas accused Israel of failing to respect the terms of the ceasefire.
A US source told CBS News that the delay was exceeding the pace of aid arriving in Gaza.
“This jeopardizes the deal and we have spoken to mediators about it,” said Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, the Associated Press reported.
However, Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, said in a statement that with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators, “obstacles were overcome” and Hamas finally agreed to release the hostages.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed in a statement Saturday evening that “after an initial medical examination, the hostages will continue to be accompanied by IDF soldiers on their way to Israeli hospitals where they will be reunited with their families.”
In return, another 39 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel – 33 children and six women – were released on Saturday, Al-Ansari announced. The released prisoners were transferred to the occupied West Bank by the Red Cross like the first group of prisoners released on Friday.
A bus transporting Red Cross workers and Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages released by Hamas from the Gaza Strip passes through trailers carrying flags in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, early November 26, 2023. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson told CBS News that President Biden spoke by phone with Qatari leaders several times on Saturday to resolve the delays.
A White House official described the president, who is spending Thanksgiving weekend with his family in Nantucket, Massachusetts, as playing a “central role” in the Gaza negotiations.
All this followed the release of an initial group of 24 hostages held by Hamas on Friday – the first day of the ceasefire – consisting of 13 Israelis, 10 Thai nationals and one Filipino national. The released Israelis ranged in age from 2 to 85 and included several mothers and four children, the Israeli government said. Four hostages, two Americans and two Israelis, were released by Hamas last month.
Israeli intelligence has received a list of the names of hostages expected to be released in each group before their handover. The families of the hostages released in the second group on Saturday were notified early on Friday evening, Netanyahu’s office said.
The ceasefire, which came into effect on Friday morning after desperate diplomatic efforts, calls for a halt to fighting and the release within four days of about 50 hostages held by Hamas, all women and children. In return, 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israel would also be released.
Before Friday’s exchange, Israel estimated that about 240 hostages were still being held by Hamas. Officials did not provide any information Saturday about how many were still being held captive.
The four-day ceasefire agreement allows hundreds of aid trucks to enter the devastated Gaza Strip. The United Nations said 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid – including food, water and medical supplies – entered the southern Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing on Friday in the hours after the ceasefire began. Four trucks carrying fuel and four tanks of cooking gas were also delivered to Gaza, according to the United Nations.
Egyptian and Israeli officials had said that about 200 aid trucks would enter the Gaza Strip daily during the ceasefire.
However, a U.S. source familiar with the ceasefire agreement told CBS News on Saturday that Hamas believed the number of aid trucks that arrived in Gaza on Friday and Saturday was below the agreed amount, contributing to Saturday’s standoff . The latest agreement agreed by both sides called for 200 trucks per day, which was less than an earlier draft contract that called for 300 trucks per day, the source said.
Those supplies were slow to reach the people of Gaza, who waited in endless lines Saturday for urgently needed help.
The source added that Hamas was also frustrated by the order in which Palestinian prisoners were released. According to the regulations, those who have been imprisoned the longest should be released first.
Meanwhile, three Americans are expected to be among the 50 people set to be released under the deal. In total, up to ten Americans are still missing since the Hamas attack.
On Friday, Mr Biden said the US did not know when the Americans held hostage would be released or what conditions they would meet. Among them is four-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, whose parents were shot dead by Hamas militants on October 7. On Saturday morning, a senior Biden administration official said the American hostages were not expected to be released today.
“We are at an early stage of the process where at least 50 women and children will be released in the first phase of the agreement,” the official said. “We are confident that three women and children with dual nationality who are American citizens will be there. This will unfold in the coming days. We will not comment on individual cases as the process is still ongoing.”
To keep its end of the agreement, Israel released an initial group of 39 Palestinian prisoners on Friday – 24 women and 15 teenage boys. Thousands gathered in the occupied West Bank village of Beitunia on Friday to greet her following her release from three Israeli prisons.
The Red Cross oversaw their transfer first to Ofer prison in the West Bank and then to Beitunia.
Before the exchange, Israeli forces had gathered outside Ofer prison, where some Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers. CBS News cameras showed a Palestinian man shot in the leg with live ammunition before being taken to an ambulance.
Noman Abu Naeem told CBS News his 16-year-old son Ahmed is on the list of Palestinian prisoners scheduled to be released on Friday. Naeem said his son was detained for about a year after he was allegedly arrested for taking part in a protest.
“Like anyone who was desperate to see their son, we were thrilled,” he said of his reaction when he learned of his son’s impending release.
The Israeli hostages released Friday included Doron Katz-Asher and her two daughters, ages 2 and 4. They had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Israeli authorities previously said about a quarter of the residents of Nir Oz, located about a mile and a half from the Gaza border, were either massacred or taken hostage by Hamas militants on October 7.
“I just burst into tears,” Dori Roberts, a cousin of Doron Katz-Asher, told CBS News on Friday. “I had to walk away and let everything go. It was a very exciting moment.”
The hostages were taken by bus to Israel, where they first visited a military base for a health check, and then by helicopter to Israeli hospitals and their waiting families.
Israeli hostages were released on Friday. IDF spokesman, courtesy of the families
Mr. Biden said on Friday that he thought “the chances are real” that the temporary pause in fighting would be extended and that he would remain in touch with the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Israel “to make sure that this happens in every way.” stays on the right path.” the deal will be implemented.”
An hour after the temporary ceasefire began Friday, CBS News cameras captured the moment Israeli soldiers fatally shot at least two Palestinians to prevent them from returning to the evacuated northern Gaza Strip.
CBS News producer Marwan al-Ghoul reported that between 4,000 and 5,000 people had begun traveling north from the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, despite Israeli forces dropping leaflets warning them not to do so . They encountered a line of Israeli tanks at an intersection in central Gaza when they were fired upon.
Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, stressed to reporters on Thursday that while Qatar was acting as an intermediary between the two sides, it was up to Israel and Hamas to respect the principles of the ceasefire agreement.
According to the Israeli military, more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed by Hamas militants during their invasion of southern Israel on October 7.
According to the Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, nearly 15,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israeli retaliation and airstrikes, and the United Nations estimates that 1.7 million of the territory’s approximately 2.3 million residents have been displaced by the war.
— Margaret Brennan, Lilia Luciano, Imtiaz Tyab, Tucker Reals, Elias Lopez, Caitlin Yilek, Bo Erickson, Khaled Wassef and Holly Williams contributed to this report.
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