Hamas yesterday made the thousands of people who gathered in Tel Aviv suffer more than usual – 100,000 according to the Israeli press – to demand the release of the nearly 216 hostages that the Islamist group had at that time in its possession along with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), coinciding with the Sabbath and the 50 days of the kidnapping that occurred during the terrorist attack of October 7, which are celebrated today.
Everything was prepared for the release of another 20 hostages, 13 Israelis – women and children – and seven of other nationalities. In exchange, Israel would release another 39 Palestinian prisoners – women and adolescents – imprisoned in the occupied West Bank. But on Saturday, Hamas announced that it would delay the release, setting off all the alarms.
However, at the end of the day the expected news came when Israel reported that 17 kidnapped people – in the end there were 13 Israelis and only 4 foreigners – had been handed over by Hamas fighters to the Red Cross in an undetermined location in Gaza and were heading to to the Rafah crossing to cross into Egypt and be transferred to Israel by road. Upon arriving in Israeli territory, the Government announced their identities. These are seven minors – ages 3 to 16 –, an 18-year-old girl and five other Israeli women, as well as four Thai men.
The second release of hostages, corresponding to the second day of ceasefire, after the cessation of hostilities on Friday, was confirmed by the Government of Qatar late yesterday, after a “delay” occurred, as Hamas described it. , which kept all of Israel in suspense.
As happened on Friday, the release was scheduled to take place in the early afternoon, but there was no news of those kidnapped. Instead, a brief statement from the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, arrived via Telegram. “The release of the second group of hostages is delayed due to Israel's failure to comply with the terms of the agreement,” said a message that necessarily reminded us of what government and army sources reiterate these days to journalists: “From Hamas You can't trust it and everything can change at the last minute.”
In fact, the spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Daniel Hagari, appeared at a press conference last night, when Qatar had already confirmed that the release of the hostages would take place, and it was extremely ambiguous. “Nothing can be finalized until it actually happens,” he said. Hagari was clear regarding a possible breach of the agreement by Hamas. “Israel will return to the fight,” he said.
Hamas justified the delay by accusing Israel of failing to comply with the agreement that both parties reached on Tuesday, which includes the release of 50 hostages – women and minors – during a four-day truce, in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners. . The fundamentalist organization stated in the statement that the Israeli Government had stopped "the entry of aid trucks to the north of the Gaza Strip" and that it had failed to comply with the agreement regarding the "rules for the release of Palestinian prisoners."
Yesterday morning, the second day of the truce, the Israeli Government announced that the trucks with humanitarian aid also agreed upon in the agreement had already entered Gaza, through Rafah. From the brief Hamas statement it was deduced that these trucks would not have arrived – or would be arriving very slowly – to the north of the strip, which is an area officially evacuated by the army, although there are still Gazans sheltering in hospitals, UN schools and other buildings.
In this sense, a Hamas spokesperson had already let it slip early yesterday to the Al Jazeera network that there could be suspense, as it happened. Said spokesman denounced that Israel had violated the ceasefire that began early on Friday because its troops shot at displaced Palestinian civilians who were trying to return to their homes – or what remains of them – in the north of the strip, according to the argument. army, because Hamas had encouraged them. A report from the AP agency stated on Friday that soldiers killed two Gazans, although Israel did not confirm it.
The situation of impasse experienced yesterday was overcome thanks to the intervention – as usual – of Qatar and Egypt, but also of the president of the United States, Joe Biden, who spoke by phone with the Qatari emir, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, to discuss to unravel the “delay”.
Finally, the spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Majed al Ansari, reported that the ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners would continue as agreed, although after the scheduled time. “The obstacles were overcome thanks to the mediation of Qatar and Egypt,” said Al Ansari.
The list of those kidnapped who were released yesterday had been delivered many hours earlier to Mossad, the Israeli secret services, in Doha, capital of Qatar, whose Government yesterday sent a delegation to Israel to follow up on the agreement with Hamas, before the Islamist group announced that the second delivery was delayed.
Before Hamas generated suspense, it was already expected that the foreigners to be released would be Thais. After a discreet direct negotiation with the Government of Thailand, also with the mediation of Qatar, Hamas on Friday released ten Thai hostages and a Filipino who, apparently, was released by mistake, according to some Israeli media, because the kidnappers did not They knew his nationality.
The 24 released on Friday – of the nearly 240 kidnapped on October 7 – were transferred to hospitals in Israel, where they were reunited with their families. Eight of the thirteen Israelis spent Friday night hospitalized, under observation, without their condition being in danger. The operation was repeated last night, and should also happen today and tomorrow until the agreed 50 releases are completed, although with Hamas you never know.
Once the release of 17 people was completed yesterday, 199 hostages would remain in the hands of Hamas and the YIP.
