Hamas has handed over the bodies of four hostages, and Israel has released some Palestinian prisoners, as the five-week-old ceasefire appeared to get back on track after a breach that had brought fears of a return to war in Gaza.
The bodies of the hostages were transferred to the Red Cross in southern Gaza and driven to the border point at Kerem Shalom at about midnight.
Meanwhile, a convoy of buses carrying Palestinian prisoners arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 43 Palestinians being held in Ofer had been transferred to the Red Cross.
The group got off the bus to cheers from hundreds congregated outside, with some of the released men hoisted aloft by the crowd.
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Israel releases some Palestinian prisoners after Hamas returns bodies of four hostages
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Nearly 100 more Palestinian prisoners were handed over to Egypt, where they will stay until another country accepts them, Reuters reports citing a Hamas source and Egyptian media.
Ambulances later arrived at the European hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, early on Thursday transporting freed Palestinians, who are set to undergo medical examination.
Prisoners freed in previous exchanges have had limbs amputated while in Israeli custody and many have been extremely emaciated.
It was unclear on Wednesday how many Palestinians were being released overnight, and whether the exchange would include all 602 prisoners who had been due to be released by Israel on Saturday in exchange for six surviving Israeli hostages.
The six hostages had been transferred by Hamas according to the agreed schedule but, as the Palestinian prisoners sat in buses on Saturday night waiting to be transferred, the government of Binyamin Netanyahu at the last moment decided not to release them and returned them to their cells.
The government said it had stopped the exchange in protest at what it complained were the propaganda ceremonies Hamas staged to hand over hostages and the remains of the Israelis who had been killed while in captivity.
Since then, Hamas agreed to hand over the four hostages’ bodies away from the cameras, and in return Mr Netanyahu’s government said it would proceed with the prisoner releases.
However, the Israeli prison authorities did not specify whether the Palestinians would be freed in one go. One Israeli official was quoted in reports as saying that they would be released in batches.
The Palestinian detainees due to be released included 445 men and 24 women and minors arrested in Gaza, as well as 151 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, a Hamas source told Reuters.
Hamas said in a statement early on Thursday that the only way the remaining hostages would be freed was through commitment to the Gaza ceasefire deal. It said it had abided by the agreement and was ready to start talks on a second phase.
The bodies handed over to the Red Cross just after midnight on Thursday morning were named by Hamas as Shlomo Mantzur, Tsachi Idan, Ohad Yahalomi and Itzhak Elgarat. The Israel Defense Forces said the identities of the bodies had not yet been verified.
The latest exchange came as the UN human rights chief accused Israel on Wednesday of showing an unprecedented disregard for human rights in its military actions in Gaza and said Hamas had violated international law.
“Nothing justifies the appalling manner in which Israel has conducted its military operations in Gaza which consistently breached international law”, said Volker Türk, while presenting a new report on the human rights situation in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to the human rights council in Geneva.
“The level of devastation in Gaza is massive – from homes, to hospitals to schools”, Mr Türk said, adding that “restrictions imposed by Israel ... have created a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Mr Türk said: “Hamas has indiscriminately fired projectiles into Israeli territory – amounting to war crimes.”
The exchange and the resumption of the ceasefire deal follow a national day of grief in Israel with thousands of Israelis waving flags, holding candles and singing the national anthem, lining the route of a funeral procession for two small children and their mother who were held hostage and died in captivity in Gaza.
With the transfer of the four hostages’ bodies and the release of the 600 Palestinians, the two sides will have completed the obligations for the first six-week phase of the ceasefire.
The second phase, due to start at the weekend, includes the release of all remaining hostages, and the complete withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza, but negotiations on the details are yet to begin just a few days before the weekend deadline.
One possibility being studied to keep the ceasefire alive while the second phase is being negotiated is to extend the first phase, but it is yet to be agreed whether more hostages and prisoners would be released during the extension. – Guardian
