The Palestinians freed in the exchange were led by Ahed Tamimi
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum: An Israeli-Hamiltonian Agreement is Still Getting Closer to the Gaza Strip
A temporary truce between Israel and Hamas is due to end on Wednesday but is still being extended in order to allow for the exchange of more captives and for aid to reach Gaza.
The arrangement calls for Israel to release 30 Palestinians if three are freed in return for every Israeli turned over to Hamas.
The Hostages and Missing Families forum believes that Hamas still held at least 146 hostages, including 27 women and four children who were under 18 years old.
Israeli doctors say that rescued hostages are back to normal health. One of the former captives is in stable condition at a hospital, but her family says her neurological condition is still unclear. Devora Cohen says her 12-year-old nephew Eitan told her that his captors used guns to threaten crying Israeli children to be quiet.
Earlier, a U.S. official told NPR that CIA Director William Burns was in Doha for meetings with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and David Barnea, the chief of Mossad, Israel’s spy agency. Speaking to NPR, an Israeli official on Tuesday also reiterated that “Israel has consistently said that as long as more hostages are released, it would address the possibility of further extending the pauses.”
The UN said that air strikes, shelling, and ground clashes have largely ceased since the temporary truce took effect on Friday.
The majority of internally displaced people in the south of Gaza are staying in hospitals and water and Sanitation facilities, and cooking gas has been entering from Egypt daily since the start of the pause.
The United Nations Secretary-General called on Monday for a humanitarian ceasefire to help the people of Gaza.
The release of Ahed Tamimi and a dozen other women and children from a Gaza prison exchange has left an indelible mark
The prominent Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi and more than two dozen other women and children were released from Israeli prisons early Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian authorities said, in the latest exchange for hostages held in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Ms.Tamimi’s mother said that her joy over her daughter’s release was masked by threats of violence made against her family by Israeli forces who have banned any celebrations.
The sheer number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the start of the war has also left an indelible mark, Nariman Tamimi said. Health authorities in Gaza have said that more than 13,000 people had been killed in the enclave during the war, and that thousands more are believed to be trapped under the rubble.
She’d be coming back after the death of 17,000 people. You understand?” Nariman Tamimi said. My daughter would come back to my lap but there were a thousand mothers who lost their children and a thousand families that died.
The couple’s sons have also spent years in Israeli detention, and one, Saleh al-Barghouti, was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces in 2018 after he was accused of opening fire on Israeli settlers. Israel bulldozed a family’s home in the year 2019.
Israel Arrives in Israel As The Gaza-Main-Second-Fire With Hamas Is Extended Another Day
With the arrival of the Secretary of State in Israel, the truce had been extended for another day.
Two Israeli-Russians were also released as part of what Hamas has described as a side-deal facilitated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the third such release since the exchanges began on Friday.
Blinken met Thursday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who thanked the U.S. “for the immense work it is devoting to the release of the hostages.” He also mentioned by name the Bibas family, still being held hostage. Israel claims the family, including the parents, four-year-old girl and 10-month-old infant, were given away by Hamas to another militant group but Hamas says the mother and children were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Blinken said that “from day one” the U.S. has focused on trying to secure the hostages’ release. A positive development was the swaps of captives this week.
“It has allowed more humanitarian assistance to go to innocent civilians in Gaza who are in dire need of assistance,” Blinken said. The results are being produced by this process. It is important, we hope that it can continue.
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), Netanyahu offered condolences to the families of the victims and said his government would expand its efforts to distribute weapons to Israeli civilians.
The bus stop attack is proof of our obligation to continue to fight with determination against murderers who threaten our citizens, as stated by the war cabinet minister. In Jerusalem, Gaza, in Judea and Samaria, and everywhere,” he wrote. The West bank is referred to as Judea and Samaria in the Bible.
On Wednesday, Palestinian officials said Israeli troops killed an 8-year-old and a 15-year-old during a raid on the Palestinian city of Jenin. Israel’s military says it killed two militants in the raid.
United Nations Secretary of State António Guterres warned that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains “completely inadequate”, adding that the delivery of humanitarian aid had been severely inadequate
While the cease-fire has allowed desperately needed aid to reach many Gazans, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday that the delivery of aid “remains completely inadequate to meet the huge needs of more than two million people.”
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest update that aid convoys, that had been unable to reach areas north of an informal line bisecting Gaza, continued through Wednesday.
It said that the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and UNRWA, the U.N. relief agency that oversees the Palestinian territories, “delivered food and non-food items, medical supplies, and fuel to shelters hosting internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as to warehouses and hospitals. Two hospitals in Gaza city received a total of 10,500 liters of fuel, which was enough for them to operate generators for seven days.
