A fragile truce aimed at ending the war in the Gaza Strip entered its second week on Sunday, the day after the release of four Israeli hostages and some 200 Palestinian prisoners, greeted by scenes of joy on both sides.
In a sign of the difficulties in implementing the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, a last-minute dispute on Saturday blocked the start of the planned return to the north of the territory of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants displaced by more than 15 months of war, triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.
Israel has made the opening of the ‘Netzarim corridor’, which isolates the south from the north of the Gaza Strip, conditional on the handover of a civilian hostage, Arbel Yehud, citing Hamas' failure to comply with a term in the truce agreement, which has not been made public, obliging it to release civilians “first”.
In the meantime, Samia Helles, from Gaza City, found herself stuck on the road with her three children. ‘I still don't know whether my house is still standing or destroyed (...) whether my mother is alive or dead’, the 26-year-old told AFP.
A Hamas leader told AFP on condition of anonymity that the civilian hostage would be ‘released during the third exchange’ scheduled for 1 February.
An initial exchange of three Israeli hostages for 90 Palestinian prisoners took place on the first day of the truce, 19 January, in the devastated Palestinian territory plunged into a serious humanitarian crisis.
On the second Saturday, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag and Naama Levy, aged between 19 and 20, were presented on a podium in front of a crowd flanked by hooded fighters from the military branches of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad.
Smiling in their khaki uniforms, they greeted the assembled Gazans before being taken to Israel, where they were reunited with their parents for a long embrace, photos of which were released by the army.
The young women, who at the time of their abduction were performing their military service assigned to guarding the Gaza Strip, were then transferred by helicopter to a hospital near Tel Aviv, greeted by a crowd waving Israeli flags.
The hospital said they were in ‘stable condition’.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed this as a ‘very happy moment’, while the White House said it would continue its efforts with Israel for the ‘release of all the remaining hostages’.
In Tel Aviv, cries of joy erupted in ‘Hostage Square’ from relatives and supporters of the soldiers at the sight of live images showing their release.
‘Bring them home now, all of them’, shouted some of the crowd, triggering applause.
In the evening, relatives of hostages and their supporters also demonstrated in Tel Aviv to demand the return of the other hostages, 87 people, 34 of whom died according to the army, out of a total of 251 kidnapped on 7 October 2023.
The Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Israel's retaliatory offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip killed at least 47,283 people, most of them civilians, according to data from Hamas's Ministry of Health.
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement is due to last six weeks and will see the release of a total of 33 hostages in exchange for some 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.
During this first phase, the terms of the second phase are to be negotiated, which should allow the release of the last hostages, before the final stage involving the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the bodies of the hostages who died in captivity.
But under pressure from the far right, part of Benjamin Netanyahu's government wants to resume the fighting at the end of the first phase of the agreement, which would probably condemn the last hostages.
In Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, a crowd waving Palestinian flags jubilantly welcomed some of the 200 Palestinians who had just been released.
Carried on their shoulders by local residents still wearing their prison uniforms, they were reunited with their loved ones amidst hugs and tears. ‘We pray to God to free all our brothers that we have left behind’, said Azzam al-Shallalta.
The list of released prisoners - 199 Palestinians and one Jordanian - includes 120 sentenced to life imprisonment - among them Mohammed Tous, a member of Fatah who has been imprisoned continuously since October 1985 - 70 of whom have been exiled to Egypt, according to the Prisoners' Club. Fourteen other prisoners have been transferred to Gaza.
With AFP.
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