The Palestinian group Hamas handed over four captured Israeli soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Saturday. Hours later, Israeli authorities said they were freeing 200 Palestinian prisoners and civilians as part of the Gaza Misefire Deal, which aims to end the 15-month-old war in Gaza.
The four freed soldiers were released into a pool in Gaza City amid a large crowd of Palestinians and surrounded by many armed members of Hamas. The women were lifted up and smiled before being led into the ICRC vehicles that transported them to Israeli forces. The Israeli military said they found four in Gaza.
Soldiers – Karina Aristi, Danina Gilboa, Naama Levy, all 20 years old, and 19 years old, were all stopped by Hamas Fighters targeting their base during Oct. Oct. Oct. 7, 2023.
The video of their capture in May also showed five documents, pajama-clad and stunned and bloodied, bound and gagged and entered the prison. The footage was found in the fields worn by the dead who attacked the Nahali OZ base in southern Israel where women were working as surveillance monitors.
After being reunited with their families at a Gaza military base near the Gaza border, the freed captors were taken to a hospital in Central Israel, Israel’s Ministry of Health said.
At the Giliboa family’s home in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, his 15-year-old sister, 15-year-old Daniella said the family never lost hope.
“We continued to hope and did everything to see him here, because he is coming back,” said Nowam Gilboa, after seeing
Television footage of Daniella released.
Hamas said the 200 Palestinians who were part of the exchange included members of Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), with some receiving life sentences. Egyptian TV – an Israeli TV station reported that Israel evacuated about 70 Palestinians from Egypt.
The ICRC said it had transferred a total of 128 detainees to Gaza and the West Bank, and most would be sent to the West Bank. A convoy of Red Cross buses carrying some Palestinians can be seen traveling to a military prison in the west.
‘An Indescribable Feeling’
More than a dozen others were taken to a hospital near Khan Younis in southern Gaza for medical checks and greeted by thousands of supporters.
“[It’s] An indescribable feeling … I thank God,” said Ilham Hapad, the sister of one of the former prisoners at the Gaza European Hospital.
“This is the first time we’ve seen them in 10 years,” he told CBC News. “May the other prisoners be released.”
Saturday’s exchange was the second since the crackdown began on Sunday and Hamas handed over three Israeli citizens in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners.
The Firearms Agreement, implemented after months of negotiations with Qatar and Egypt and supported by the United States, has stopped for the first time since Crece which lasted just a week in November 2023.
Hamas is not following the withdrawal plan, Israel said
After Saturday’s release, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee told the Post that X leamas did not keep the fire attack agreement to take out Israeli civilians first. Israel was expecting the release of Arbel Yehouhoud, one of the hostages, on Saturday.
Emily Damari, 28, Doron Steinbrecer, 31, and Romidi Gonen, 24, were the first three Israeli police officers to leave Gaza on Sunday. Gonen was kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival, and others were kidnapped at Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Israel will not allow Palestinians to cross into northern Gaza until Jehod is released, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel was expected to begin pulling back from the Netzarim Corridor – the East-West Road that divides Gaza – and allow displaced Palestinians from the south to return to the north when the war began.
“We are determined to return Arbel Yehoehoud, an Israeli citizen who was translated by Nir Oz (KIBBUTZ), and Shiri Bibas and her two children,” said the military spokesman, adding Adm. Daniel Hagar said.
A Hamas official told Reuters that Yehoud is alive and will be released next Saturday.
One of the displaced Palestinians who fled is waiting to return to northern Gaza, 53-year-old Suhair Bakr. He told CBC news that his only son died in the war after leaving his home in Gaza City. He does not know where he was buried.
He said the exchange of Palestinian prisoners is not a victory, “considering how many homes and families have been destroyed in Gaza.
“Our victory is that we are going home, even if our homes are destroyed, even though we know that there is nothing to rebuild,” said Bakr. “There is no water, no electricity, no houses.”
Mahmoud Al-Zain, who was also waiting on Saturday near Gaza for the opportunity to return, said that his house exploded on the eighth day of the war.
“We never dreamed that we would go back,” said the 48-year-old man.
“We have family in northern Gaza … all our childhood was in Gaza. We cannot live without Gaza,” he said.
The head of the UN Development Program on Wednesday promised that the war would put development in Gaza after 60 years. He said two-thirds of the buildings in the field were damaged or destroyed.
“You can just imagine the two million people in the Gaza strip who have lost only their homes, they have lost public infrastructure, water treatment systems, new water pressure management, basic services. All these infrastructure and services simply do not exist,” said Steiner at the economic conference. annual event in Davos, Switzerland.
In the first phase of the six-week deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages, including children, women, old men and the sick and wounded, in exchange for hundreds of Israeli forces withdrawing from some of their positions on the Gaza Strip.
In the next phase, the two sides could discuss the exchange of the remaining members, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which is largely dormant after 15 months of fighting and bombing.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas Attack, in which the forces killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 Saitores back to Gaza, according to the Israelis. Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have passed through Gaza, according to health authorities there.
After the release last Sunday of the hostages Lomi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbecher and Loron Steinbecher and the recovery of the body and other nationalities remain held in Gaza, although it is not clear how many of them are still alive.
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