A total of 24 hostages, including 13 Israelis, ten Thais and one Filipino, were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza by Hamas on Friday, while Israel released 39 women and children held in its prisons, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry.
While the truce in the fighting between Israel and Hamas began at dawn on Friday, November 24, and is due to last four days, 13 hostages were released and handed over to the Israeli security services.after brief support by the Red Cross, according to a statement by ICRC spokesperson Frédéric Joli on franceinfo.
An Israeli diplomatic source specifies that 12 of these 13 hostages are part of the same kibbutz. This is that of Nir Oz, particularly affected by the attacks of October 7. The released hostages are women, children and vulnerable people. There were no French present in the first wave of hostage releases.
Hamas also confirms the release “Thai foreigners”in addition to the Israeli hostages, a source close to the Palestinian Islamist movement reported to AFP, presenting these releases as “a gesture”. Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin earlier announced that 12 Thai hostages had been “liberated”a priori outside the agreement between Israel and Hamas. According to Israeli media, these 12 Thai hostages have just arrived in Israel.
Qatar, a key mediator with Egypt and the United States, obtained an agreement on Wednesday on a renewable four-day truce during which 50 hostages held in Gaza must be released like 150 Palestinian detainees.
The International Committee of the Red Cross launches a vast operation “of several days aimed at facilitating the release and transfer of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian detainees to the West Bank”indicates the ICRC in a press release. “The operation will include the delivery of much-needed additional humanitarian assistance to Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army withdrew from Gaza’s al-Chifa hospital, on the first day of a truce between Israel and Hamas in power in the Palestinian territoryreported the Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health.
On the first day of the Israeli raids on the hospital, 2,300 patients, wounded, caregivers and displaced people were there according to the UN. Depending on the evacuations, “around 100 patients and caregivers are still in al-Chifa”reported Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli government “was determined to bring back all the hostages.” For their part, Germany and France welcomed these releases and called for a truce “sustainable”. The American President believes that there are “real chances” to extend the pause in hostilities.
