Gaza war truce sees new hostage-prisoner swap
Published: 04:01 PM,Jan 25,2025 | EDITED : 08:01 PM,Jan 25,2025
A freed Palestinian prisoner gestures as he is greeted by people after being released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza, in Khan Younis. — Reuters
GAZA: Palestinian fighters and Israel carried out a hostage-prisoner swap on Saturday under a Gaza ceasefire deal, but a last-minute dispute blocked the expected return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to devastated northern Gaza. As part of the exchange, the second since the truce took effect last Sunday, four freed Israeli women hostages, all soldiers, arrived home in Israel after more than 15 months of captivity in Gaza. In exchange, buses with Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli detention left Israeli prisons, journalists saw. Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, all aged 20, and Liri Albag, 19, waved, smiled, and gave thumbs up as they were paraded on a stage in Gaza City, flanked by masked and armed militants, during a slick ceremony watched by hundreds of residents.
In Tel Aviv, where a crowd gathered to watch the release on a large TV screen at a plaza known as Hostage Square, there were tears of joy and applause as Israeli flags waved. After their handover to the Red Cross, Israel's military said the women were transferred back into Israel and 'reunited with their parents'. They were later taken by military helicopter to a hospital for treatment.
Health workers have warned of the psychological challenges the freed captives will face.
Following their release, journalists said buses carrying Palestinian prisoners left Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and Ktziot prison in the Negev desert. The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said among those to be released is Mohammed al Tous, 69, who has spent the longest continuous period in Israeli detention. Seventy Palestinian prisoners arrived aboard buses in Egypt Saturday after being released from Israel as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal, state-linked Egyptian media reported.
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau based in Qatar, had said on Friday that Palestinians displaced by the war to southern Gaza should have been able to begin returning to the north following Saturday's releases. But Israel on Saturday said it would block such returns until civilian woman hostage Arbel Yehud is released. 'Israel will not allow the passage of Gazans to the northern part of the Gaza Strip until the release of civilian Arbel Yehud, who was supposed to be released today, is arranged,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
The truce has also led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, but Israel's UN ambassador on Friday confirmed that the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Gaza's main aid agency, must end all operations in Israel by Thursday. The hostage-prisoner exchange is part of a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that took effect last Sunday, and which is intended to pave the way to a permanent end to the war.
Mediators Qatar and the United States announced the agreement days ahead of US President Donald Trump's inauguration. Trump has since claimed credit for securing the deal after months of fruitless negotiations. The ceasefire agreement should be implemented in three phases, but the last two stages have not yet been finalised. In Gaza, families displaced by more than a year of war longed to return home, but many will find only rubble where houses once stood. Israel's retaliatory response has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable. Almost the entire Gaza population of 2.4 million has been displaced by the war. — AFP
In Tel Aviv, where a crowd gathered to watch the release on a large TV screen at a plaza known as Hostage Square, there were tears of joy and applause as Israeli flags waved. After their handover to the Red Cross, Israel's military said the women were transferred back into Israel and 'reunited with their parents'. They were later taken by military helicopter to a hospital for treatment.
Health workers have warned of the psychological challenges the freed captives will face.
Following their release, journalists said buses carrying Palestinian prisoners left Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and Ktziot prison in the Negev desert. The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said among those to be released is Mohammed al Tous, 69, who has spent the longest continuous period in Israeli detention. Seventy Palestinian prisoners arrived aboard buses in Egypt Saturday after being released from Israel as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal, state-linked Egyptian media reported.
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau based in Qatar, had said on Friday that Palestinians displaced by the war to southern Gaza should have been able to begin returning to the north following Saturday's releases. But Israel on Saturday said it would block such returns until civilian woman hostage Arbel Yehud is released. 'Israel will not allow the passage of Gazans to the northern part of the Gaza Strip until the release of civilian Arbel Yehud, who was supposed to be released today, is arranged,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
The truce has also led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, but Israel's UN ambassador on Friday confirmed that the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Gaza's main aid agency, must end all operations in Israel by Thursday. The hostage-prisoner exchange is part of a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that took effect last Sunday, and which is intended to pave the way to a permanent end to the war.
Mediators Qatar and the United States announced the agreement days ahead of US President Donald Trump's inauguration. Trump has since claimed credit for securing the deal after months of fruitless negotiations. The ceasefire agreement should be implemented in three phases, but the last two stages have not yet been finalised. In Gaza, families displaced by more than a year of war longed to return home, but many will find only rubble where houses once stood. Israel's retaliatory response has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable. Almost the entire Gaza population of 2.4 million has been displaced by the war. — AFP