KHAN YOUNIS: Hamas was expected to swap more of its hostages on Saturday for prisoners held by Israel on the second day of a cease-fire that has allowed critical humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and given civilians their first respite after seven weeks of war.
On the first day of the four-day cease-fire, Hamas released 24 of the about 240 hostages taken during its October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war, and Israel freed 39 Palestinians from prison. Those freed from captivity in Gaza were 13 Israelis, 10 Thai nationals and a citizen of the Philippines.
Under the agreement, Hamas will release one Israeli hostage for every three prisoners freed. Israel’s Prison Service said Saturday it was preparing 42 prisoners for release, suggesting Hamas would release 14 Israeli hostages. There has been no official Israeli announcement on the number of hostages to be freed Saturday, though Hamas handed a list of names to the authorities late Friday.It was not immediately clear how many non-Israeli captives may also be released.During the four days, Hamas is to release at least 50 Israeli hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners, all woman and minors.
Israel has said the truce can be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed something United States President Joe Biden said he hoped would come to pass.
The start of the truce Friday morning brought the first quiet for 2.3 million Palestinians reeling and desperate from relentless Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands, driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and levelled residential areas. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel went silent as well.
For Emad Abu Hajer, a resident of the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza City area, the pause Friday meant he could again dig through the rubble of his home, which was flattened in an Israeli attack last week.
He found the bodies of a cousin and nephew, bring the death toll in the attack to 19. With his sister and two other relatives still missing, he resumed his digging Saturday.
“We want to find them and bury them in dignity,” he said.
The United Nations said the pause enabled it to scale up the delivery of food, water, and medicine to the largest volume since the resumption of humanitarian aid convoys on October 21. It was also able to deliver 129,000 litres (34,078 gallons) of fuel just over 10 per cent of the daily pre-war volume as well as cooking gas, a first time since the war began.
In the southern city of Khan Younis on Saturday, a long line of people with gas cans and other containers waited outside a filling station hoping to get some of the newly delivered fuel.
As he waited for fuel, Hossam Fayad lamented that the pause in fighting was only for four days. “I wish it could be extended until people’s conditions improved,” he said.
For the first time in over a month, aid reached northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive. A U.N. convoy delivered flour to two facilities sheltering people displaced by fighting.
The UN said it and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society were also able to evacuate 40 patients and family members from a hospital in Gaza City, where much of the fighting has taken place, to a hospital in Khan Younis.