GAZA: A Palestinian farmer was killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip's Maghazi refugee camp, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, underlining the fragility of the truce.
There was no comment from Israel on the report but there were fears it could jeopardise the third phase of plans to swap 50 hostages held by the Palestinian groups for 150 prisoners in Israeli jails over a four-day period.
A senior Palestinian source said on Sunday's phase looked "complicated". Asked if the farmer's killing could delay a third batch of releases, the source replied: "I don't know".
Israel has vowed to destroy the Palestinian groups, bombarding the enclave and mounting a ground offensive in the north. Some 15,000 people, roughly 40 per cent of them children, have been killed, Palestinian health authorities said on Saturday.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States are pressing for the truce to be extended beyond Monday but it is not clear whether that will happen.
Israel had said the ceasefire could be extended if Palestinians continued to release at least 10 hostages a day. A Palestinian source had said up to 100 hostages could go free.
Television images showed freed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza as Hamas handed the captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Six of the 13 Israelis released were women and seven were teenagers or children.
"The released hostages are on their way to hospitals in Israel, where they will re-unite with their families," the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israel released 39 Palestinians — six women and 33 teenagers — 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 awaited them.
Saturday's swap follows the previous day's initial release of 13 Israeli hostages, including children and the elderly, in return for the release of 39 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli prisons.
The deal risked being derailed when Hamas' armed wing said on Saturday it was delaying releases until Israel met all truce conditions, including committing to let aid trucks into northern Gaza.
Palestinian groups spokesperson Osama Hamdan said only 65 of 340 aid trucks that had entered Gaza since Friday had reached northern Gaza, or "less than half of what Israel agreed on". — Reuters
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