As Hamas releases more hostages, a longer ceasefire seems possible

A third group of hostages from the Gaza Strip, including a four-year-old American girl whose parents were killed in the Hamas attacks on Israel, were released on Sunday, raising the prospect that more prisoners could be freed and a fragile ceasefire extended.

Among the 17 hostages released by Hamas and seized when the militants invaded Israel on October 7 were three Thai nationals, a Russian and the little girl Avigail Idan, a US-Israeli national kidnapped from a kibbutz. On Friday she celebrated her fourth anniversary in captivity in Gaza.

“Thank God she’s home,” President Biden told reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he was spending the Thanksgiving holiday. “I wish I was there to hold her.”

Much depended on the latest release of hostages, who were exchanged on the third day of a four-day truce for 39 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

With both Israel and Hamas poised to resume fighting at a moment’s notice, a collapse of the agreement could have quickly led to a resumption of hostilities that have already killed thousands of people. It could also have choked off much-needed supplies that have only just made their way to civilians in Gaza.

Instead, Hamas said late Sunday, in response to an offer from Israel to add one day to the ceasefire for every 10 hostages released, that it was also interested in extending the agreement. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday during a visit to Israeli forces in Gaza that “we will continue until the end – until victory.”

Later, in a video statement issued shortly after Hamas proposed extending the ceasefire, Mr. Netanyahu said he would welcome that.

Just a day earlier, as a second round of hostage releases approached, eleventh-hour complications led to speculation that the deal might be dead.

Hamas and its allies seized an estimated 240 hostages when they attacked southern Israel last month, killing about 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians. Israeli air and ground strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza have reportedly killed more than 13,000 people.

On Friday, after lengthy negotiations between Qatar and the United States, Israel and Hamas paused fighting for four days to release hostages and allow food and other supplies to enter Gaza’s devastated neighborhoods.

Under the original terms of the deal, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire to allow the exchange of 50 hostages held by Hamas and 150 Palestinian women and youth in Israeli prisons.

For Gaza residents struggling to find food, water, fuel and medical care, the deal offered hope that basic services would be allowed again across the borders blocked by Israel and Egypt.

On Sunday, the Egyptian government said that 200 aid trucks had entered Gaza the day before, including seven trucks carrying 129,000 liters of diesel fuel. It was later said that another 120 trucks had arrived on Sunday afternoon, including two carrying fuel and two carrying cooking gas, and this number was expected to increase in the coming hours.

Information filtering out of northern Gaza points to a grim struggle for survival.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Gaza and the West Bank reports that people in northern Gaza have eaten unripe fruit and the few remaining raw vegetables, and are unable to find bread. Livestock are dying from lack of feed, and crops are increasingly being abandoned due to lack of fuel to pump irrigation water, the office said.

In scattered interviews before the ceasefire took effect, people in Gaza said they burned cardboard to cook what little food they had left and filtered non-potable water through clothing in an attempt to clean it.

Mr Biden said the goal now was to build on the ceasefire.

“More is needed, but this deal will deliver life-saving results,” he said. “Vital aid is coming in and hostages are coming out. This deal is structured so that it can be extended to build on these results. That’s my goal, that’s our goal, to make this break go further than tomorrow.”

During his visit to Israeli forces on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said: “We are doing everything we can to return our hostages, and in the end we will return them all.”

Television footage showed people standing along the road outside an air base in southern Israel, waving flags and cheering as the convoy of minibuses carrying 12 of the freed hostages drove in.

Their freedom came as stories emerged of the hostages released last week.

The released hostages have not spoken directly to the news media. Most are still being treated in private areas of Israeli hospitals, and much of the information about where and how they were held remains classified.

But relatives who spoke to them said they all seemed to have spent their weeks in captivity, completely cut off from the outside world, and returned thinner than before.

“They were eating, but not regularly and not all the time,” said Merav Mor Raviv, a cousin of Keren Munder, 54, who was released Friday along with her son, Ohad Munder-Zichri, 9, and her mother. Ruth Munder, 78.

“They ate a lot of rice and bread,” Ms. Raviv said.

Ruth Munder only learned after she was released that her son Roi had been killed on October 7, Ms Raviv said. But she also learned that her husband, Avraham Munder, whom she thought was dead, was still alive, although imprisoned in Gaza.

Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli army’s chief spokesman, said another hostage, Elma Avraham, was flown by army helicopter directly from Gaza to an Israeli hospital in serious condition. The Israeli military said four others – an Israeli and three foreign citizens – had crossed into Egypt.

Within hours of the hostages’ release on Sunday, Israel’s Prison Service said it had released 39 Palestinians in custody.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 53-year-old Ziad Dawoud waited for word on whether his 17-year-old son, Tariq, would be among those freed. The young man was accused almost a year ago of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.

When he heard his son was being released, he said, Mr. Dawoud ran from their hometown of Qalqiliya to Ramallah, where hundreds of people had gathered outside Ofer prison. After his son got off the bus of released prisoners, he said, the two hugged and the younger Dawoud went to kiss his father’s feet out of respect.

His father refused to let him.

“I said to him, ‘Oh my son, my love,’” Mr. Dawoud said.

The prisoner happily exchanges relatives far from Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Three of the hostages released on Sunday are Thais who were working in Israel when the Hamas fighters crossed the border. Among them was Anucha Angkaew, who appeared in a photo circulating on social media showing himself and three other men being held at gunpoint with their hands behind their backs.

His mother, Watsana Yojampa, said on Sunday that Thai officials had confirmed he was now free.

“I am so happy, so excited, that no words can explain it,” said Ms. Watsana.

Anna Betts, Pieter Bakker, Nadav Gavrielov And Lisa Friedman reporting contributed.