Hamas releases 17 more hostages to Israel from Gaza on 3rd day of temporary ceasefire
The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was back on track Sunday as the militants freed 17 more hostages, including 14 Israelis, in the third set of releases under a four-day ceasefire deal.
Red Cross representatives transferred the hostages out of Gaza. Some were handed over directly to Israel, while others left through Egypt. Israel’s army said one was airlifted directly to an Israeli hospital.
The Israeli hostages ranged in age from four to 84, and included Abigail Edan, a four-year-old Israeli-American girl whose parents were killed in the Hamas attack that started the war on Oct. 7.
In all, nine children ages 17 and younger were on the list, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Abigail’s mother was killed in their home at the Kfar Aza kibbutz. The girl “ran to her dad, who was also gunned down while using his body to shield little Abigail,” he said.
Speaking to reporters in Nantucket, Mass., Biden said the latest group of released hostages was going to cross into Egypt from Gaza, but they went directly into Israel so that an elderly non-American woman who is “very sick” could be taken to hospital.
Separately, Hamas said it had released one of the Russian hostages it was holding “in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin” and as a show of appreciation for Moscow’s position on the war. Israeli army radio had reported that it was an Israeli-Russian dual national.
Israel was to free 39 Palestinian prisoners later Sunday as part of the deal.
A fourth exchange is expected on Monday — the last day of the ceasefire during which a total of 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed. All are women and minors.
International mediators led by the U.S. and Qatar are trying to extend the ceasefire.
Ahead of the latest release, Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip, where he spoke with troops. It was not immediately clear where he went inside Gaza.
“We are making every effort to return our hostages, and at the end of the day we will return every one,” he said. He added that “we are continuing until the end, until victory. Nothing will stop us.”
Hamas commander killed
In a separate development, Hamas announced that one of its top commanders had been killed, without saying when or how. Israel’s military confirmed it.
Ahmed al-Ghandour, who was in charge of northern Gaza and a member of its top military council, is the highest-ranking militant known to have been killed in the fighting.
Al-Ghandour, believed to have been around 56 years old, had survived at least three Israeli attempts on his life and was involved in a 2006 cross-border attack during which Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier, according to the Counter Extremism Project, an advocacy group based in Washington.
Hamas said al-Ghandour was killed along with three other senior militants, including Ayman Siam, who Israel says was in charge of Hamas’s rocket-firing unit.
The Israeli military mentioned both men in a Nov. 16 statement, saying it had targeted an underground complex where Hamas leaders were hiding. The Israeli military claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence, including several mid-ranking commanders that it has identified by name.
The ceasefire agreement has brought the first significant pause in seven weeks of war, marked by the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades and vast destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip. Hamas and other militant groups seized around 240 people during the rampage across southern Israel that ignited the war.
Featured VideoAs Israel and Hamas begin a four-day ceasefire, global affairs expert Janice Stein and hostage negotiations expert Dan O’Shea talk to Ian Hanomansing about what’s next for the war, as well as the remaining hostages and detainees.
Pressure from hostages’ families has sharpened the dilemma facing Israel’s leaders, who seek to eliminate Hamas as a military and governing power while returning all the captives. The war has claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians killed by Hamas in the initial attack. More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
The ceasefire, which began Friday, was brokered by Qatar and Egypt and the United States. Israel has said the truce can be extended by an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed, but has vowed to quickly resume its offensive once it ends.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. is working “with all sides on the possibility that this deal gets extended to additional hostages beyond the initial 50.
‘The fight is not over’
A relative of some of the Israeli hostages, Aharon Brodutch, spoke to CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live about his hopes that his sister-in-law and her three children — a 10-year-old daughter and sons, ages eight and four — would be released soon.
The four were kidnapped by Hamas during an attack on their kibbutz, Kfar Aza on Oct. 7. The Canadian Israeli says he recently flew to Israel as he and his brother anxiously wait for news of their safe return.
“I think the fight is not over until every last hostage is out, and hopefully it can all be done in one go,” Brodutch said. “I don’t understand the politics of the situation, but I’m hoping that it does continue and that we get everyone out.”
On Saturday, the militants released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, while Israel freed 39 jailed Palestinians.
Hero’s welcome in West Bank
Some of the Palestinian detainees were released in East Jerusalem, while the bulk returned home to a hero’s welcome in the occupied West Bank.
Among those released was Nurhan Awad, who was 17 in 2016 when she was sentenced to 13½ years in jail for attempting to stab an Israeli soldier with a pair of scissors. Israa Jaabis had been imprisoned since 2015 after being convicted of a bomb attack that wounded an Israeli police officer and left Jaabis with severe burns on her face and hands.
In the West Bank town of Al-Bireh, newly released teenage boys were paraded through the main square, where they waved Palestinian flags as well as green banners of Hamas and yellow banners of the rival Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, Israel is holding 7,200 Palestinians, including about 2,000 arrested since the start of the war.
The war in Gaza has been accompanied by a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian health authorities said early Sunday that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin that began the day before.
The military said it had arrested a suspect in the killing of an Israeli father and son at a car wash in the West Bank earlier this year. The army has conducted frequent military raids and arrested hundreds of Palestinians since the start of the war, mostly people it suspects of being Hamas members.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said a Palestinian farmer was also killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza.
