Hamas begins releasing hostages

Hamas said it had released 13 Israelis, three Thais and one Russian. The International Committee of the Red Cross also said it had successfully airlifted 17 hostages from Gaza.

Video footage on Reuters TV showed several Palestinian prisoners were also released from Israeli jails on Sunday.

Hamas has said it wants to extend the truce if Israel makes a serious move to potentially free more Palestinian prisoners.

US President Joe Biden said he expected the truce to last as long as hostages were freed. He hoped Hamas would free more American hostages, but there was no certainty about that possibility at this time.

Mr Biden revealed that the four-year-old hostage, Abigail Edan, witnessed her parents die in the October 7 attack and has been held hostage since then.

“The things the child had to witness were unimaginable.”

The four-day truce is the first pause in fighting in seven weeks since Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead and 240 hostages taken to Gaza.

In response, Israel pledged to destroy Hamas, ordered bombing raids on Gaza, and launched a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 Palestinians were killed, and hundreds of thousands were forcibly displaced.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with security forces in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. He also said he had discussed the hostage release with Mr. Biden, and said he was willing to accept an extension of the truce if 10 more hostages were freed each day.

However, Mr. Netanyahu also said that when discussing with Mr. Biden, he affirmed that when the ceasefire ends, "we will attack with full force again to aim at the goal: to destroy Hamas, ensure Gaza returns to what it was before and of course to free all hostages."

A farmer died

The killing of a Palestinian farmer in the central Gaza Strip has added to concerns about the fragility of the current truce.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, the farmer was killed when he was attacked by Israeli forces from the east of the Maghazi refugee camp.

Hamas' armed wing said on Sunday that four of its commanders in Gaza had been killed, including the commander of the North Gaza brigade, Ahmad Al Ghandour. However, the group did not say when he died.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have urged the sides to extend the truce beyond Monday, but it remains unclear when this will happen.

World - Hamas begins to release hostages — Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa.

Israel said the ceasefire could be extended if Hamas continued to release at least 10 hostages a day. A Palestinian source said up to 100 hostages could be freed.

Violence in the West Bank

Six of the 13 Israelis freed on Saturday were women and seven were children and teenagers. The youngest, a 3-year-old named Yahel Shoham, was freed along with her mother and brother, but her father remains a hostage.

Israel has released 39 Palestinians, including six women and 33 minors, the Palestinian media agency WAFA reported.

Some Palestinians went to Al-Bireh City Square in Ramallah in the West Bank, where thousands of people greeted them.

Violence erupted in the West Bank late Saturday and early Sunday after Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including two children and at least one gunman, local sources and medical officials said.

Even before the October 7 attack, the West Bank had been plagued by unrest, with increased Israeli military raids, a growing number of Palestinian attacks, and increased violence from Israeli settlers over the past 18 months. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, some of them in Israeli airstrikes.

Saturday's prisoner swap followed the previous day's release of 13 Israeli hostages, including several children and elderly people, in exchange for the release of 39 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails.

Four Thais released on Saturday “wish to get clean and contact their relatives,” Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on X. He said they were all safe and had no major complications.

“I am so happy, I am so glad, I cannot describe my current feelings,” Thongkoon Onkaew said in a phone call to Reuters after his son Natthaporn, 26, was released.

The quiet days

The deal was put at risk when Hamas's armed wing said on Saturday it would delay releasing the hostages until Israel fulfilled its terms, including allowing trucks carrying aid into Gaza.

Qatar and Egypt, along with US President Joe Biden, spent a day negotiating to salvage the deal.

Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades said Israel had failed to comply with the terms of the deal to release hostages based on the length of their detention.

COGAT, Israel's civilian coordination body with the Palestinians, accused Hamas of delaying trucks carrying humanitarian aid into northern Gaza at checkpoints.

“For Hamas, the people of Gaza are not a priority.”

Many people had been waiting for the release of the hostages on Saturday, and the joy of some was somewhat tempered by the fact that some others were still being held.

“I feel confused because my son, Italy, is still being held by Hamas,” said Mirit Regev, mother of Maya Regev, who was released late on Saturday, in a statement at the Forum of Families of Missing or Held Hostage.

Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)

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