GAZA: Hamas fighters are set to release a second group of hostages Saturday (25th day of Nov, 2023) in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli prison authorities said 42 Palestinian inmates – both male and female – would be freed under the terms of the agreement, which mandates exchanges at a ratio of three to one.
An Israeli official source said 14 hostages would be handed over.
The transfers follow an initial exchange Friday, the first day of a four-day truce that largely silenced the guns on both sides.
The second day of the truce appeared to be holding. Only a small plume of grey smoke rose over northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s air and ground offensive against Hamas, an AFPTV live showed.
On Friday Hamas released 24 hostages, according to Qatar and an official Israeli list. They included 13 Israelis – all of whom were women and children, including some dual citizens.
Ten Thais and one Filipino were also unexpectedly freed.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Kittiya Thuengsaeng in Thailand, who thought her 28-year-old boyfriend had been killed by Hamas.
Then she saw a photograph of Wichai Kalapt after his release.
“I had a chat with him in the morning. He was still smiling. He told me he was safe,” she said.
Hamas fighters snatched around 240 captives when they broke through Gaza’s militarized border with Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, according to Israeli authorities.
In response to the deadliest attack in its history, Israel launched an air, artillery and naval bombardment alongside a ground offensive to destroy Hamas, killing nearly 15,000 people, according to the Hamas government in Gaza.
A two-minute video released by Hamas showed masked militants with rifles, wearing military fatigues and the green headband of the Islamist movement’s armed wing, handing hostages over to the Red Cross.
Israel in turn freed 39 Palestinian women and children from its prisons.
In a Tel Aviv suburb, people applauded and held up Israeli flags as helicopters flew in the freed captives.
Elsewhere in the city, the smiling faces of freed hostages were projected onto the walls of an art museum with the message: “I’m home”.
“Today we are excited about the returnees, but I want us not to forget all those who have not yet returned,” Yael Adar, daughter-in-law of former hostage Yaffa Adar, 85, told Israel’s Ynet news website.
About 215 hostages remain in Gaza, though in many cases it is unknown if they are dead or alive, Israeli army spokesman Doron Spielman said.
Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 hostages during the truce in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners, under an agreement struck after talks involving Israel, Palestinian militant groups, Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Newspakistan.tv/APP/AFP
