Hamas fighters to free more hostages after joyful reunions

Hamas fighters were set Sunday to release a third group of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a day after freeing captives including a young woman snatched from a desert rave.

Families voiced joy at the return of hostages including a nine-year-old Israeli-Irish girl and cheering crowds greeted Palestinian prisoners as they walked free from a jail in the West Bank.

In a sign of the fragility of the exchanges, the latest swap Saturday was delayed for hours after Hamas accused Israel of breaching the deal that led to a four-day ceasefire in the seven-week-old war.

Despite the dispute, Hamas finally released 13 Israelis and four Thai hostages at night, officials said.

Israel said it in turn freed 39 Palestinian prisoners under the truce agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had received a further list of hostages due to be released by Hamas on Sunday.

Excitement, pain –
The ceasefire and hostage-for-prisoner swap brought the first significant relief to both sides since October 7, when Hamas fighters broke through Gaza’s militarized border with Israel, snatched around 240 people and killed about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, according to Israeli authorities.

In response Israel launched an air, artillery and naval bombardment alongside a ground offensive to destroy Hamas, killing nearly 15,000 people, mostly civilians and including thousands of children, according to the Hamas government in Gaza.

Among the hostages freed late Saturday was 21-year-old Maya Regev, kidnapped by Hamas fighters in their deadly raid on the Supernova music festival along with her 18-year-old brother Itay.

“I am so excited and happy that Maya is on her way to us now. Nonetheless, my heart is split because my son Itay is still in Hamas captivity in Gaza,” their mother Mirit said in a statement released by the hostage families’ forum.

Emily Hand, the nine-year-old Israeli-Irish freed hostage, ran into the tight embrace of her father upon her release, a video released by the Israeli Defense Forces showed.

“We are overjoyed to embrace Emily again, but at the same time, we remember… all the hundreds of hostages who have yet to return,” her family said in a statement released via the forum.

Among the latest group of Palestinians released was 38-year-old Israa Jaabis, sentenced to 11 years in jail for detonating a gas cylinder at a checkpoint in 2015.

Jaabis, wearing a wreath of yellow flowers, hugged relatives in her home on her return.

“Thank God. My pain is visible, no need to speak about it,” she said, her face partially disfigured by burns.

“I also have pain on an emotional level and I am missing my relatives. But this is the tax a prisoner pays.”

Young prisoners embraced relatives and were carried on their shoulders after walking free from the Ofer prison in the West Bank into a crowd waving the green flags of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

“May God protect the resistance in Gaza, mercy for our martyrs, and healing for the wounded. Long live the resistance and long live all those who supported it,” said one released prisoner, Wael Bilal Mashy.

AFPTV videos showed Israeli forces firing tear gas to disperse Palestinians gathered near the prison awaiting the prisoners’ release, and paramedics carrying one wounded person on a stretcher.

Ceasefire extension? –
Egypt has said that it received positive feedback from both sides about the idea of extending the truce for a day or two and releasing more hostages and prisoners.

US President Joe Biden told reporters Friday that “the chances are real” for extending the truce.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for “a permanent ceasefire and a complete end to this aggression”.

But Israeli armed forces chief Herzi Halevi said Saturday that the war to eliminate Hamas would continue.

“We will return immediately at the end of the ceasefire to attack Gaza,” Halevi said.

“We will also do this in order to dismantle Hamas, also to create a great deal of pressure to return as quickly as possible and as many abductees as possible, every last one of them.”

The latest hostage handover was delayed on Saturday when Hamas said Israel was interfering in the selection of prisoners for release and not allowing aid into northern Gaza.

Hamas later said it relented when Egyptian and Qatari mediators relayed a promise by Israel to uphold the accord.

Israeli officials denied any breach of the ceasefire’s terms, describing Hamas’s actions as “psychological warfare”.

Hamas has released 26 Israeli hostages in exchange for 78 Palestinian prisoners in the two releases already completed.

The militants have also freed a total of 14 Thais and one Filipino.

Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 hostages during the truce in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners.

Aid trucks enter Gaza –
The pause in fighting has allowed more aid to reach Palestinians struggling to survive with shortages of water and other essentials. Israel had placed Gaza under near-total siege.

A total of 61 trucks delivered food, water and medical supplies to northern Gaza on Saturday, the United Nations office for humanitarian affairs said.

Another 187 trucks of vital supplies bound for aid organizations also crossed into the Gaza Strip, it said.

The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting.

Thousands have been returning under the truce to what is left of their homes, picking through piles of rubble.

“We are civilians,” said Mahmud Masood, standing in front of flattened buildings in Jabalia, northern Gaza. “Why have they destroyed our houses?”

Palestinian health authorities said on Sunday that Israeli troops had killed eight Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over a 24-hour period.

They included five people killed by Israeli army fire in Jenin during an incursion by a large number of armored vehicles, the Palestinian health ministry said.

by Adel Zaanoun with Hazel Ward in Tel Aviv