More than 20 hostages held by the militant group Hamas were released on Friday on the first day of a ceasefire in its seven-week-old war with Israel.
The 24 people freed comprised 13 Israeli women and children and, in a surprise development, 10 Thai nationals and a Filipino, all of whom were seized on October 7th when Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people, according to the Israeli authorities, and kidnapping more than 200.
It was not clear on Friday night if Emily Hand, the nine-year-old Irish-Israeli national who was seized from her home in kibbutz Be’eri, would be included in the 12 or so hostages due to be released on Saturday.
More than 14,000 people in Gaza have been killed since Israel launched a military campaign in response to the October 7th attack, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
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Those released by Hamas on Friday were the first of a total of 50 who are to be released in four instalments over the four-day period the ceasefire is to last.
They included a mother and her two children, aged four and two; a mother and her five-year-old daughter; three generations of one family – grandmother, mother and grandson; and five elderly women, the eldest of whom is 85.
“Each and every one of them is a whole world,” prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said. “The return of the kidnapped is one of the goals of the war.”
After the Israeli hostages crossed the border, Israel released the first group of 39 Palestinian prisoners, among them 24 women and 15 teenage boys, out of a total of 150 who will be set free as part of the deal. They were greeted by a huge crowd of relatives and supporters at a West Bank crossing.
In another development, 137 lorries carrying fuel and humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Friday.
The hostages were taken by Hamas to a hospital in Khan Younis, where they were handed over to representatives of the Red Cross and driven south to the Rafah crossing, and from there to an Israeli air force base close to the Gaza border, before being flown to two Israeli hospitals.
The families of the hostages met them, for the first time, in an isolated compound in one of the designated hospitals. In the first 24 hours after their release, professionals and family members will inform the hostages about their relatives and their fellow community members who were murdered or were also kidnapped.
The 10 Thai nationals and Filipino released were taken to hospitals in central Israel. Many workers from Thailand worked on Israeli farms close to the Gaza border.
There were no wild celebrations after the release, despite the obvious relief of the waiting families. Israel is still a grieving nation, shell-shocked from the trauma of October 7th, and in everyone’s mind are the hostages still in Gaza.
Many of those released will not be able to return to the homes they knew, as most residents of Gaza periphery communities have relocated to safer areas such as hotels in Eilat or the Dead Sea. The residents of kibbutz Be’eri, Emily Hand’s home, voted this week to move for a couple of years to another kibbutz, away from the border, until the destroyed homes on Be’eri have been rebuilt.
Israeli Defense Forces spokesman rear admiral Daniel Hagari warned that the four-day period of hostage releases might well be accompanied by moments of uncertainty. “These will be complex days; nothing is final until it actually happens. And even during the process, there could be changes at all times. Hamas will try to capitalise on the deal and the pause in the fighting to create fear, to spread disinformation and to manipulate. Do not spread rumours,” he said.
Gaza residents used the ceasefire to stock up on essentials or visit friends without fear of an Israeli air strike for the first time in almost seven weeks. Others took the opportunity to search for relatives buried under the rubble or to bury loved ones.
Palestinian sources reported two people killed and a number wounded. Israel dropped leaflets in the southern Gaza Strip advising people against heading north, saying: “The humanitarian pause is temporary, and the northern region of Gaza is a war zone.”
Israeli leaders have made it clear that they intend to continue the war immediately after the ceasefire.
