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International Red Cross vehicles, carrying Israeli prisoners released from Gaza, are on their way to Rafah crossing under the 4 day deal in Gaza on November 24, 2023.
Mustafa Hassona | Anadolu | Getty Images
The armed wing of Hamas said it had decided to delay Saturday’s scheduled second round of hostage releases until Israel met conditions including committing to let aid trucks into northern Gaza, as mediators scrambled to keep a four-day truce on track.
Qatar is in ongoing talks with Israel and Hamas to resolve the delay in hostage releases “as soon as possible,” an official briefed on the situation told Reuters.
Egypt was also trying to resolve the delay, a Palestinian official familiar with the matter who did not want to be named told Reuters.
Israel said it was honoring the truce. Earlier it said 50 aid trucks carrying food, water, shelter equipment and medical supplies had deployed to northern Gaza under UN supervision, the first significant aid delivery to northern Gaza since the start of the war.
The statement by the al-Qassam Brigades punctured hopes of a smooth second day of hostage and prisoner releases after 13 Israeli women and children were freed by Hamas on Friday.
Some 39 Palestinian women and teenagers were released from Israeli jails under the truce accord mediated by Qatar.
Read more about the war between Israel and Hamas:
Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades said Israel was failing to respect the terms of the Palestinian prisoner release agreed as part of the hostage deal. Qadura Fares, the Palestinian commissioner for prisoners, said Israel had not released detainees according to seniority, as was expected.
Israeli army spokesperson Olivier Rafowicz told French television Israel was strictly honoring the terms of the truce, and said the military had carried out no attacks or offensive operations in Gaza on Saturday.
“There is a delay…in the release of the hostages. I do not want in any way to get into what the armed wing of the terrorist group Hamas is saying,” Rafowicz told BFM TV. “This situation is obviously being managed at the highest level in Israel.”
Truce extended?
The Israeli army spokesman said earlier Israel had been expecting another 13 hostages to be set free on Saturday, with 39 Palestinian prisoners also to be released — barring last-minute changes.
A total of 50 hostages are to be exchanged for 150 Palestinian prisoners over four days under 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% of them children, have been killed, Palestinian health authorities said on Saturday.
Hours before the al-Qassam Brigades statement, Egypt, which controls the Rafah border crossing through which aid supplies have resumed into southern Gaza, said it had received “positive signals” from all parties over a possible truce extension.
Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), said in a statement that Cairo was holding extensive talks with all parties to reach an agreement which would mean “the release of more detainees in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”
Israel has said the ceasefire could be extended if Hamas continues to release hostages at a rate of at least 10 per day. A Palestinian source has said up to 100 hostages could go free.
Hostages released as part of a deal between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas arrive by helicopter at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva, Israel, November 24, 2023.
Ronen Zvulun | Reuters
Aid trucks
Both sides have said hostilities would resume as soon as the truce ends, though U.S. President Joe Biden said there was a real chance of extending the truce.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its fighters killed 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages after they broke through security barriers around the Gaza Strip and rampaged through Israeli communities around the blockaded enclave.
Since then, Israel has rained bombs on Gaza, killing about 14,000 people, roughly 40% of them children, Palestinian health authorities say.
For many of the 2.3 million people who live in the tiny Gaza Strip, the pause in the near-constant air and artillery strikes has offered a first chance to safely move around, take stock of the devastation, and seek access to aid imports.
“We hope the truce will continue and be permanent, not just four or five days. People cannot pay the cost of this war,” said Ayman Nofal, in a street market in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
Fifty trucks carrying food, water, shelter equipment, and medical supplies, have been deployed to the northern Gaza Strip and to shelters in non-evacuated areas of the Palestinian enclave, Israel said. Since then, Israel has rained bombs on Gaza, killing about 14,000 people, roughly 40% of them children, Palestinian health authorities say.
Egyptian Red Crescent members load on a truck humanitarian aid for war-torn Gaza brought by a French air force Airbus A400M cargo aircraft at El-Arish International Airport on November 20, 2023.
Thomas Samson | Afp | Getty Images
This was the first time since the start of the war that a significant amount of aid was deployed to northern Gaza, according to the Israeli Defence Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.
‘Breath a little’
A U.N. convoy delivered aid to two shelters for displaced people in northern Gaza for the first time in over a month, the U.N. humanitarian office said.
“We are happy with the truce, it gave the people the opportunity to breathe a little bit,” Palestinian resident Haitham Ahmed said.
Four fuel trucks and four more carrying cooking gas passed through the Rafah crossing into Gaza early on Saturday. Palestinians, suffering acute fuel shortages due to Israel’s blockade of the enclave, stood in long queues to fill their gas cylinders.
But Mohammed Ghandour who waited five hours to fill his cylindrical metal canister, left empty-handed. “I’m now going home without gas,” he said.
A vehicle carrying hostages abducted by Hamas militants during the October 7 attack on Israel arrives at the Rafah border, amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, from southern Gaza Strip November 24, 2023.
Reuters Tv | Reuters
Aid groups have also used the temporary truce to evacuate patients and health workers from some northern hospitals that have all but collapsed due to attacks and lack of fuel.
‘Still afraid’
Thailand welcomed the release of 10 of its nationals from Gaza on Friday under a separate track mediated by Egypt and Qatar, and said a further 20 were still being held. Iran said it helped facilitate that release.
Among those freed was Thai farm worker Vetoon Phoome, whose family thought he had been killed in the Hamas attack seven weeks ago, according to his sister, Roongarun Wichagern.
In Palestinian homes, the joy of being reunited with loved ones was tinged with bitterness. In at least three cases, prior to the prisoners’ release, Israeli police raided their families’ homes in Jerusalem, witnesses said. Police declined to comment.
“There is no real joy, even this little joy we feel as we wait,” said Sawsan Bkeer, the mother of 24-year-old Palestinian Marah Bkeer, jailed for eight years on knife and assault charges in 2015.
Israeli police were seen raiding her Jerusalem home before her daughter’s release.
“We are still afraid to feel happy,” she added.
In Khan Younis, Tahani al-Najjar, a Palestinian woman returning home to find it in ruins, said a pause in the fighting was not enough.
“Tell me what we got out of this truce?,” she asked. “What we got out of this truce? You only made our hearts hurt. Do you want to find a solution for us? You should make a permanent truce for us.”
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