The latest scheduled release of hostages in Gaza begins as mediators strive to extend the truce between Israel and Hamas
The release was expected to be followed by the exchange of another ten hostages in Gaza for thirty Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: International mediators worked Wednesday to extend the ceasefire in Gaza and encourage Hamas militants to continue freeing hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and further relief from Israel’s air and ground offensive. Otherwise the ceasefire will end within a day. Two Russian-Israeli women released by Hamas entered Israel on Wednesday evening, the military said. The release was expected to be followed by the exchange of another ten hostages in Gaza for thirty Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Israel has welcomed the release of dozens of hostages in recent days and says it will maintain the ceasefire if Hamas continues to free prisoners. Still, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underlined on Wednesday that Israel will resume its campaign to eliminate Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years and orchestrated the deadly attack on Israel that sparked the war.
“Will Israel return to the fight after this phase of returning our abductees is exhausted? So my answer is an unequivocal yes,” he said. “It is impossible that we will not continue to fight until the end.”
He spoke ahead of a visit to the region planned this week by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to push for further extensions of the ceasefire and the release of hostages.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian boys — an 8-year-old and a 15-year-old — during an attack on the city of Jenin, Palestinian health officials said. Security footage showed a group of boys on the street starting to run, except for one who fell to the ground bleeding.
The Israeli army said its forces fired at people who threw explosives at them, but did not specify whether it was referring to the boys, who were not seen throwing anything. In addition, the army said its forces killed two Islamic Jihad militants during the attack.
Weeks of heavy bombing and a ground invasion destroyed large parts of Gaza and killed thousands of Palestinians. But it appears to have had little effect on Hamas’s rule, evidenced by Hamas’s ability to conduct complex negotiations, enforce ceasefires between other armed groups, and orchestrate the release of hostages. Hamas leaders, including Yehya Sinwar, have likely moved south.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now crammed into southern Gaza, with about three-quarters of them driven from their homes. The ceasefire has led to a mad rush to secure supplies to feed their families, as aid arrives in greater but still insufficient quantities. The fear hangs over everyone that fighting will soon resume.
An Israeli ground invasion in the south is likely to incur escalating costs in Palestinian lives and destruction that the United States, Israel’s most important ally, may be unwilling to bear.
The Biden administration has told Israel that if it launches an offensive in the south, it will have to operate with much greater precision.
“How far either side will be willing to go in trading hostages and prisoners before the break remains to be seen, but the pressure and incentives for both to stick with it are currently stronger than the incentives to go to war again feed.” Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, wrote about X.
Diplomacy is increasing
The ceasefire is expected to end sometime after Wednesday’s exchange.
Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s state information services, said negotiations had made progress and it was “very likely” an extension would be announced on Wednesday. Egypt, Qatar and the US led mediation on the original ceasefire and a two-day extension announced on Monday.
The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The militants kidnapped about 240 people back to Gaza, including babies, children, women, soldiers, older adults and Thai farm workers.
Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza have killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, roughly two-thirds of whom were women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
The toll is likely much higher as officials have only updated the count sporadically since Nov. 11 due to the loss of services in the north. The ministry says thousands more people are missing and feared dead under the rubble.
Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.
ISRAEL’S HOSTAGE DILEMMA
The plight of the prisoners and the shock of the October 7 attack have increased Israeli support for the war. But Netanyahu is also under pressure to bring the hostages home and could find it difficult to resume the offensive if there are prospects of more releases.
Before the release of the hostages on Wednesday, Israel said about 160 hostages were still being held in Gaza: 126 men and 35 women; four under 18 years of age and 10 over 75 years of age. Each side has so far released women and children in the exchange.
An Israeli official involved in the hostage negotiations said efforts were aimed at a two-day extension of the ceasefire for the release of all remaining women and children held by Hamas.
Until that happens, further extensions of the release of male civilians and soldiers will not be considered, he said. He estimated that there are “several dozen” soldiers in Hamas captivity, most of whom are men. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations were ongoing.
Hamas men – and especially soldiers – are expected to push for similar releases of Palestinian men or prominent prisoners, a deal that Israel may oppose.
A total of 63 Israelis, including dual nationals, were released during the six-day ceasefire. Most of them appear physically fine, but are shaken. Another twenty hostages – nineteen Thais and one Filipino – have also been released. Before the ceasefire, Hamas released four hostages, and the Israeli army rescued one. Two others were found dead in Gaza.
So far, most of the 180 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons are teenagers accused of throwing rocks and firebombs during clashes with Israeli forces. Several were women convicted by Israeli military courts of attempting to attack soldiers.
Palestinians have celebrated the release of people they say resisted Israel’s decades-long military occupation of areas they want for a future state.
TENSE CALM IN GAZA
For the Palestinians in Gaza, the calm of the truce has been overwhelmed by the search for help and by horror at the scale of the destruction.
In the north, residents described entire residential blocks in Gaza City and surrounding areas razed to the ground. The smell of decomposing bodies trapped beneath collapsed buildings fills the air, said Mohmmed Mattar, a 29-year-old Gaza City resident who is working with other volunteers to search for the dead among the rubble or left on the streets.
They have found and buried 46 so far during the ceasefire, he said. Most were unidentified. More bodies still lie in the rubble, but cannot be reached without heavy equipment, or are left in streets unapproachable because of Israeli forces nearby, Mattar said.
In the south, the ceasefire has allowed more aid to be delivered from Egypt, up to 200 trucks a day. But aid officials say this is not enough as most now rely on outside help. The overwhelmed UN-run shelters are home to more than 1 million displaced people, many sleeping outside in cold, rainy weather.
At a distribution center in Rafah, large crowds queue every day for newly arrived bags of flour. But supplies are quickly running out before many can get their share.
“We have been looking for bread for our children,” said a woman in line, Nawal Abu Namous. “Every day we come here… we spend money on transportation to get here, just to go home with nothing.”
Some markets and shops have reopened, but prices for the few items in stock have skyrocketed. Winter clothing is not available. A clothing store owner in Deir al-Balah told The Associated Press that he hates opening his doors in the morning because he knows he will have to spend most of the day apologizing to customers because he has no winter items.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said about 111,000 people have respiratory infections and 75,000 have diarrhea, more than half of whom are under 5 years of age. “More people could die from disease than from bombings.”
“We are fed up,” said Omar al-Darawi, who works at the overwhelmed Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. “We want this war to end.”
(Jeffery reported from Cairo and Lidman from Jerusalem.)