Israeli female soldiers are holding and reacting to the Palestinian crowd before the Red Cross was handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza on January 25.Abid Hijar/ The Associated Press
Four women caught in a war attack in Gaza returned to Israel safely on Saturday when Hamas militants paraded them in front of a crowd in Gaza city and handed them over to the Red Cross. Israel later released 200 Palestinian prisoners in the second exchange of a critical ceasefire.
Four Israelis smiled, hoisted and threw them from a Palestinian Square stage, while both sides were militants, while Hamas again tried to show that it was under Gaza after 15 months of war. The hostages probably worked under pressure, earlier that they were kept in brutal conditions and was forced to record propaganda videos.
The Israeli prison service later said it had completed the release of 200 Palestinians. They included 121 people who were serving life imprisonment for deadly attacks against Israelis, while others were detained without charges. About 70 was released in Egypt, according to Egyptian official TV. Egypt is a key mediator in ceasefire talks.
In the first major ceasefire crisis, Israel said it would not allow the homeless Palestinians to start their return to northern Gaza, as was expected until Sunday, because a citizen was to be released, Arbil Jews remained. Was not done As the mediators addressed, hundreds of Palestinians gathered, who were waiting for the north.
“Open the way for us to return. It is enough,” said Khalil Abdul, a man.
Thousands of Palestinians celebrated the arrival of buses carrying prisoners in the occupied West Bank city of Ramullah. Some prisoners wore bandages on the heads of Hamas, which they were given by the mob. Wan visible and wearing a gray jail suite suit, some supporters rode on the shoulders.
Hundreds of people expressed their happiness over the release of four Israelis in Tel Aviv’s Hospitals Square.
“I laughed at seeing them,” said the spectator, Aviv Berkovich. “I just want the war to end.”
As a mother of an hostage in Gaza, I feel unbearable and heartbreak.
The hostages were taken to an Israeli military base, where they embraced their loved ones. When they approached a hospital in Tel Aviv by helicopter, thousands of people danced and celebrated.
Israeli citizens insist on the release of the hostage Arbil Jews.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel would not allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza until a citizen named Jews, which was taken from pigeons, was released.
A senior Hamas official said the group informed the mediators that the Jews would be released next week.
An Egyptian official involved in the talks called the matter a “minor issue”, which mediators are working to resolve. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The ceasefire began last weekend and aims to end the deadliest and most devastating war between Israel and Hamas so far. The deal has been made so far, air strikes and rockets have been silenced and allowed to increase aid to small, devastated Gaza.
When the ceasefire began on Sunday, three kidnappers were released in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children.
Who are the soldiers and prisoners released?
Four Israeli soldiers, Kareena Arif, 20, Daniela Gulbawa, 20, Nama Levy, 20, and Larry Albag, were caught in the attack of Hamas 7 October 2023, which incited the war.
In return, Israel released 200 prisoners. Among them are 52 -year -old Mohammad Auda and 54 -year -old Wael Qasim, both from East Jerusalem. They were accused of deadly Hamas attacks against the Israelis, which included a bomb attack in a cafeteria at a Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2002, killing nine people, including five US citizens.
According to Abdullah Al -Zaghari, the head of the Palestinian prisoners’ lawyer, seventy -released prisoners were expelled from Egypt and some other countries could go to Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey all agreed to take them. –
The released Israeli soldiers were taken from the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza border when Palestinian militants seized it, killing more than 60 soldiers there. The fifth female soldier of his unit, Ajam Berger, was also abducted.
“This is huge,” said Rizwan Abu Raviya, a resident of Gaza City, one of the thousands who saw the hostages returning. “People have forgotten war, destruction and celebrating.”
In a statement, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hugari criticized him, calling him a “blasphemous” public exhibition before the release of Israeli women by Hamas.
He also said that Israel was concerned about the fate of the youngest hostages – Kufr and Ariel Babas – and his mother Sherry. Kafir Babas celebrated his second birthday this month.
What is ahead in the ceasefire agreement?
Israel was expected to start withdrawing from the Natzar Corridor – a Eastern West road that divides Gaza – and for the first time since the war began, the homeless Palestinians to return to the north to the south Will give But it seems that it has been stopped until the release of the Jews.
Twenty -seven other hostages are to be released with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the first phase of the ceasefire. The next release of the hostages is due next week.
What happens after the first phase is uncertain, but many people hope it will end the war that has displaced the majority of the Gaza population and put millions of people at risk of famine. Has given
On October 7, a cross -border attack led by Hamas killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 others hostage. More than 100 kidnappers were released in the ceasefire that lasted a week next month. Israel believes that at least one -third of the more than 90 cassets inside Gaza were killed in the initial attack or killed during the capture.
“It’s difficult that she’s still there,” said Barjar’s family friend Uniculins, the fifth female soldier with Nahal Oz base. “There were five girls, four are out and now she’s alone.”
According to local health officials, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and groundwater war, who do not say how many militants were. He says more than half of the deaths are women and children.
