Palestine: Hamas has released 13 Israeli captives and four Thai nationals to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the second day of the Israel Hamas truce. The release came after a delay of seven hours as the Palestinian militant group claimed that Israel had violated the terms of a truce.
The dispute was resolved following mediation by Qatar and Egypt. Israel is now expected to release 39 Palestinian prisoners from its jails.
Mr. Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a post on X that “13 Israelis and four foreign nationals had been handed over to the ICRC. They were on their way to the Rafah border crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt before travelling to Israel.”
“The 17 captives had arrived in Israel,” the Israeli Army posted on X. “After undergoing an initial medical assessment, they will continue to be accompanied by IDF [Israeli Army] soldiers as they make their way to Israeli hospitals, where they will be reunited with their families,” the Army noted.
According to a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, the Israeli captives included six adult women and seven children and teenagers. The hostages were released after spending 50 days in captivity.
Earlier, Hamas spokesperson Mr. Osama Hamdan had said that the aid deliveries permitted by Israel had fallen short of what had been promised and were not reaching northern Gaza, which was the target of Israel’s offensive.
“Only 65 of the 340 aid trucks that had entered Gaza since Friday had reached northern Gaza, which was less than half of what Israel agreed on,” Mr. Hamdan said from Beirut.
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