More Israeli hostages and Palestinians freed as
ceasefire extension agreed
Celebrations as Hamas releases 11 hostages from Gaza
in exchange for 33 Palestinians in Israeli jails as truce extended by two days
Jason Burke
in Jerusalem
Tue 28 Nov
2023 08.45 CET
Eleven more
Israeli hostages have been freed from Gaza in return for dozens of Palestinians
held in Israeli jails, as the two sides agreed to extend the existing ceasefire
by two days.
Hamas
released the hostages – nine children and two women – late on Monday, with all
of them from the Nir Oz kibbutz, according to officials from the community. A
further release in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails is
scheduled to take place later on Tuesday.
The Israeli
hostages released on Monday evening included three with French citizenship, two
with German citizenship and six Argentinian citizens. Their return to Israel
after 51 days in captivity brought “a sigh of relief to our community, however
we remain deeply concerned about our loved ones that are still held hostage,”
Osnat Peri, a kibbutz official, said.
Shortly
afterwards, a release of a further 33 Palestinian prisoners – 30 children and
three women – was confirmed by Israel’s prison authority. It was the last
exchange under the initial ceasefire deal.
The
extension of the truce by 48 hours has brought great relief in Israel, Gaza and
beyond. But there are fears of a return to fighting when the deadline expires
on Thursday morning, threatening more civilian casualties, displacement and
destruction.
Israeli
leaders have sworn repeatedly to secure the release of all the 240 hostages
taken by Hamas last month but also to “crush” the militant Islamist
organisation.
Images
released by the Israeli military showed a French-Israeli child, Eitan Yahalomi,
reunited with his mother, who gripped him tightly to her.
“Seeing the
hostages reunited with their families and the fact that they are recovering
physically gives a sense of optimism, but given their difficult, complex
stories of captivity, they will have a long way to go until they are [fully]
healed,” said Itai Pessach, the head of the Safra Children’s hospital.
Ido Dan, a
relative of Israelis Sahar Calderon, 16, and Erez Calderon, 12, spoke of the
joy at their release on Monday mixed with anxiety about their father, Ofer, who
is still being held. “It is difficult to go from a state of endless anxiety
about their fate to a state of relief and joy,” Dan said. “This is an exciting
and heart-filling moment but … it is the beginning of a difficult
rehabilitation process for Sahar and Erez, who are still young and have been
through an unbearable experience.”
In a
separate deal, an undisclosed number of Thai nationals were released. Most were
farm workers seized along with kibbutz residents by Hamas last month.
In East
Jerusalem, prisoner Muhammad Abu Al-Humus called his release “an indescribable
joy” and kissed his mother’s hand as he entered his home after release from an
Israeli prison, while crowds in the West Bank town of Beitunia waved green
Hamas flags to greet those arriving on a coach.
Nearby
there were clashes with Israeli troops close to Ofer prison, with Palestinians
burning tyres and throwing stones. The Palestinian health ministry said one
person was killed by Israeli forces.
Hamas
announced on Monday it had agreed to extend the four-day truce, after the
intervention of Qatar and Egypt, the principal mediators for the initial
agreement, and with the same conditions.
Israel did
not comment directly but, in what may be an implicit confirmation, the Israeli
prime minister’s office said the government had approved the addition of 50
female prisoners to its list of Palestinians for potential release if
additional Israeli hostages were freed.
António
Guterres, the UN secretary general, hailed the extension as “a glimpse of hope
and humanity in the middle of the darkness of war”.
This week,
the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will pay his third wartime visit to
the Middle East, meeting the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel
Aviv and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.
The US has
significant concerns about the resumption of hostilities, and the nature of any
new Israeli offensive. Washington is particularly worried by the prospect of a
major ground invasion of southern Gaza, where most of the enclave’s 2.3 million
inhabitants are concentrated in often dire humanitarian conditions.
Yoav
Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, told troops on Monday that when fighting
recommenced, its “strength will be greater, and it will take place throughout
the entire strip”.
“You now
have a few days, we will return to fighting, we will use the same amount of
power and more,” he said.
Blinken
“will stress the need to sustain the increased flow of humanitarian assistance
to Gaza, secure the release of all hostages and improve protection to civilians
in Gaza”, a senior US official said.
Washington
also wants Israel to lay out a vision for future of Gaza after the war, and
potentially some kind of broader settlement. So far, Netanyahu has refused to
discuss the subject with allies in public or even in private, diplomatic
sources said.
On his
visit, Blinken will discuss “the principles he laid out for the future of Gaza
and the need to establish an independent Palestinian state,” the US official
added.
International
pressure for an extension of the ceasefire had been intense
Guterres
pushed on Monday for a full humanitarian ceasefire instead of a temporary
truce, which Israel has so far resisted, and called again for the hostages held
by Hamas to be released immediately and unconditionally.
One Hamas
official has suggested that the militant Islamist organisation might be ready
to negotiate the release of some of the military personnel seized last month.
The future of these hostages has not previously been discussed.
“We hope
the Occupation [Israel] abides [by the agreement] in the next two days because
we are seeking a new agreement, besides women and children, whereby other
categories that we have that we can swap,” Khalil Al-Hayya, a Hamas official,
told Al Jazeera late on Monday.
That, he
said, would entail “going towards an additional time period to continue
swapping people at this stage”.
Among
hostages Hamas still holds are fathers and husbands of those it has freed in
recent days.
There are
still more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel, many of them
far more prominent than the children and women freed so far. Their freedom is
thought to have been one of the main objectives of last month’s attacks.
The war was
triggered when Hamas broke through the perimeter fence around Gaza on 7 October
and attacked communities in southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people,
mostly civilians in their homes and at a music festival. More than 240 people
were abducted, including infants, elderly people, disabled people, soldiers and
foreign farm workers.
Between
13,000 and 15,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli offensive
launched after the Hamas attack, roughly two-thirds of them women and children,
according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. More than 1 million
people have been forced from their homes.
At least 57
journalists and media workers have been killed in the conflict so far, the
Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday.
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