Hamas and Israel continue to release detainees

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said 12 hostages had been evacuated from Gaza. Meanwhile, the Israeli military confirmed that 10 Israeli citizens and two foreigners were present on Israeli territory with their special forces.

The hostages were among about 240 taken by Hamas in the October 7 attack. Israel's response to the attack killed about 15,000 Gazans, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry .

Live video broadcast by Al Jazeera on Tuesday showed a bus carrying Palestinian prisoners leaving Israel's Ofer prison in the West Bank.

Israel said it had freed 30 Palestinian prisoners from Ofer and another prison in Jerusalem . The group included 15 women and 15 young men, according to the semi-official Palestinian Prisoners Organization.

Al Jazeera said the freed Palestinians were present in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Jerusalem.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry of Qatar, which is acting as a mediator for the deals, said the freed Israelis included nine women and one child.

Some of the hostages were released by the Al Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization.

The truce has brought Gaza its first period of calm in seven weeks of fighting and bombing that has left much of the Strip leveled. The truce was due to expire on Tuesday, but both sides have agreed to extend it to allow for the release of more people held by Hamas and Israel.

Israel has said the truce can be extended as long as Hamas frees at least 10 Israeli hostages a day. However, with fewer women and children being held, extending the truce beyond Wednesday would require negotiations for Hamas to free its first male Israeli hostage.

The total number of hostages released by Hamas since the ceasefire came into effect is 81, including 60 Israeli women and children, and 21 foreigners, many of them Thai workers.

Israel freed 150 prisoners earlier Tuesday.

Ability to extend the agreement

On Tuesday, Israeli forces and Hamas soldiers stopped firing and both sides expressed their desire to extend the truce.

World - Hamas and Israel continue to release detainees on fifth day of truce — Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad.

Qatar has welcomed the heads of Israel's Mossad and the US CIA at a meeting to "take advantage of the progress made in the humanitarian truce and begin further discussions on the prospects for further developments in the agreement in the future".

Although the fighting situation in Gaza remains largely calm, the Israeli military said three explosive devices were detonated near its troops on Tuesday afternoon at two locations in northern Gaza, violating the truce.

At one location, Hamas gunmen opened fire on Israeli soldiers. The soldiers returned fire and some suffered minor injuries.

Earlier, a plume of black smoke was spotted over the northern Gaza battlefield, but on the fifth day of the truce, there were still no signs of fighter jets or explosions.

Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, head of the Israeli armed forces, said at a press conference that the country's military remains on high alert in Gaza and is ready to continue fighting.

Bury the dead

More than two-thirds of Gaza's population have been left homeless by Israeli bombings. Thousands of families have been forced to take shelter in makeshift camps with the few possessions they can carry.

Many people took advantage of the truce to return to their flattened homes, like Abu Shamaleh, who had to dig through the debris to find what remained of his possessions.

He said 37 of his family members were killed and there was no machinery to exhume the body of a relative who was trapped under the rubble.

“The truce is a time for us to dig through the rubble, find the dead and bury them. We mourn the dead by burying them. What is the point of a truce if their bodies are still under the rubble?”

Among the Israeli hostages still at large are a 10-month-old boy named Kfir Bibas, along with his 4-year-old brother Ariel and their parents, Yarden and Shiri. They were seized from a kibbutz by gunmen on October 7.

Yarden's sister said relatives had been told the family would not be released on Tuesday. Israeli officials said they believed the family was being held by a militant organization other than Hamas.

“Kfir… is a little baby who doesn’t know how to call his mom,” Jimmy Miller, a family member, told Channel 12 TV. “It’s really hard for our family to deal with this. We haven’t slept for a long, long time — 51 days.”

As the fighting continues, Israel has said it will continue to push its offensive south. US officials say they have asked their ally to be cautious and protect civilians as it moves forward.

The Israeli siege has collapsed the health system in Gaza, especially in the north, where there are no functioning hospitals. The WHO says more Gazans could soon die from disease than from the bombing, and many still lack medicines, vaccines, clean water, food and sanitation.

Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)

Source