GAZA/JERUSALEM – Thirteen Israeli and four Thai nationals arrived in Israel on Nov 26 in the second release of hostages from Hamas captivity in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a deal briefly endangered by a dispute about aid delivery into Gaza.
Although overcome by the mediation of Egypt and Qatar, the dispute that threatened the truce to free captives underscored the fragility of the pact to swop 50 hostages held by the Palestinian militant groups and 150 prisoners in Israeli jails.
Television footage showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza, as Hamas handed over the captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) late on Nov 25.
Six of the 13 Israelis released were women and seven were children and teenagers. The youngest was three-year-old Yahel Shoham, freed with her mother and brother, although her father remains a hostage.
“The released hostages are on their way to hospitals in Israel, where they will reunite with their families,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Israel released 39 Palestinians – six women and 33 minors – from two prisons, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
Some of the Palestinians arrived at Al-Bireh Municipality Square in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where thousands of citizens were waiting for them, a Reuters witness said.
A Palestinian official familiar with the diplomatic moves said Hamas would continue with the truce, the first halt in fighting since Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel on Oct 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.
In response to that attack, Israel has vowed to destroy the Hamas militants who run Gaza, raining bombs and shells on the enclave and launching a ground offensive in the north.
To date, some 14,800 people, roughly 40 per cent of them children, have been killed, the Palestinian health authorities said on Nov 25.
The Nov 25 swop follows the previous day’s initial release of 13 other Israeli hostages, including children and the elderly, by Hamas in return for the release of 39 Palestinian women and youth from Israeli prisons.
Hamas on Nov 24 also released a Philippine national and 10 Thai farm workers.
The four Thais released on Nov 25 “want a shower and to contact their relatives”, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said a day later on social media platform X, adding that all were safe and showed few ill effects.
Eighteen Thais remain captive, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said on Nov 26 in a tally reflecting two abductions that had previously been unknown.
“I’m so happy, I’m so glad, I can’t describe my feelings at all,” Madam Thongkoon Onkaew told Reuters by telephone after news of the release of her 26-year-old son Natthaporn Onkaew, the family’s sole breadwinner.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMid2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnN0cmFpdHN0aW1lcy5jb20vd29ybGQvbWlkZGxlLWVhc3QvaGFtYXMtcmVsZWFzZXMtbW9yZS1pc3JhZWxpLWZvcmVpZ24taG9zdGFnZXMtaW4tc2Vjb25kLWRheS1vZi1nYXphLXRydWNl0gEA?oc=5
2023-11-25 23:34:00Z
2599361480
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar