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12 more hostages held by Hamas are freed in Gaza, Israel says: Updates
More captives to be freed as mediators work to prolong the Israel-Hamas truce
TEL AVIV, Israel — A temporary truce between Israel and Hamas is set to expire on Wednesday, but mediators in Qatar are trying to extend it for at least another 48 hours to allow for the exchange of more captives and for additional aid to reach embattled Gaza.
On the second day of a two-day cease-fire extension, at least another 10 Israelis are expected to be freed by Hamas in exchange for at least 30 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says it believes that 161 of the original 240 hostages seized by Hamas in last month’s attack on Israeli communities are still being held by the Islamist militant group. Israel says about 1,200 people were killed when Hamas fighters swept out of the Gaza Strip and struck nearby Israeli communities.
On Tuesday, Hamas freed 10 Israelis and two Thai laborers in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Details trickle out about the conditions of Israelis’ captivity
The families of Israeli hostages released by Hamas continue to share stories of their relatives’ captivity, with some relatives speaking to media outlets. Gideon Heiman says his 84-year-old mother did not receive necessary medical treatment while being held in Gaza.
Israeli doctors also say rescued hostages have returned malnourished. One of the former captives is in stable condition at a hospital, but her family says her neurological condition is still unclear. Devora Cohen says her 12-year-old nephew Eitan told her that his captors used guns to threaten crying Israeli children to be quiet.
Earlier, a U.S. official told NPR that CIA Director William Burns was in Doha for meetings with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and David Barnea, the chief of Mossad, Israel’s spy agency. Speaking to NPR, an Israeli official on Tuesday also reiterated that “Israel has consistently said that as long as more hostages are released, it would address the possibility of further extending the pauses.”
Meanwhile, Hamas told mediators that they approve of extending the truce for four days, Israeli media reported. Israeli media also has said that a longer cease-fire could be in the works to secure the release of all the hostages and a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
Aid reaching Gaza during pause still insufficient, U.N. says
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that “airstrikes, shelling, and ground clashes have largely ceased,” since the temporary truce went into effect on Friday, but said that an “exchange of fire reportedly took place between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in the Beit Hanoun area, in the north, and Israeli forces reportedly used tank fire at open areas in the south.”
The pause has allowed Egypt and the Palestinian Red Crescent Societies and U.N. agencies “to enhance the delivery of assistance into and across Gaza.” The U.N. said a Red Crescent aid convoy carrying food, medical supplies, water, and non-food items reached areas north of an informal dividing line that bisects Gaza. Israel’s military, which has focused its military campaign on the north, has warned Gazans to move south of the line.
Even with the aid convoy reaching the embattled north, OCHA emphasized that “the bulk of aid distribution during the day” took place in the south. It also cautioned that the aid reaching Gaza since the pause “is insufficient to meet the extensive needs.”
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for “a full humanitarian ceasefire, for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and the wider region.”
Israel says 12 more hostages have been freed from Gaza
By Wafaa Shurafa, Jack Jeffrey, and Lee Keath | Associated Press
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A fragile truce between Israel and Hamas held for a fifth day Tuesday, as the militant group released more hostages to delay the expected resumption of the war. Israel came under pressure from the United States to better protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza if its offensive resumes.
The latest swap of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel got underway Tuesday evening. Israel said 10 of its citizens and 2 foreigners were freed by Hamas and had entered Egypt.
Mediators met in Qatar to try to extend the cease-fire beyond Wednesday. For the first time since it began, Israel and Hamas traded accusations of a serious violation with an exchange of fire between troops and militants in northern Gaza.
But there was no indication that it would endanger the truce or the planned exchanges of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Israel has vowed to resume the war with “full force” to destroy Hamas once it’s clear that no more hostages will be freed under the deal.
The Biden administration has told Israel it must avoid “significant further displacement” and mass casualties among Palestinian civilians if it resumes the offensive, and that it must operate with more precision in southern Gaza than it has in the north, according to U.S. officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, who heads Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, were in Qatar, a key mediator with Hamas, to discuss extending the cease-fire and releasing more hostages, a diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. A U.S. official confirmed Burns was in Qatar, speaking anonymously because the director’s travel plans are not publicized for security reasons.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit the region this week, also to extend the truce.
Hamas and other militants are still holding about 160 hostages out of the 240 seized in their Oct. 7 assault into southern Israel that ignited the war. Israel has said it is willing to extend the cease-fire by one day for every 10 additional hostages that Hamas releases, according to the deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the U.S. But Hamas is expected to make much higher demands for the release of captive soldiers.
Israel has vowed to end Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza and crush its military capabilities. That would almost certainly require expanding the ground offensive from northern Gaza to the south, where most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million is now crowded. It’s unclear where they would go if Israel expands its ground operation, as Egypt has refused to accept refugees and Israel has sealed its border.
HOSTAGES AND PRISONERS RELEASED
The latest freed hostages — 9 women and a 17-year-old teenager — were being flown to hospitals in Israel, where they will be reunited with their families, the Israeli military said. Around 30 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released as part of the deal negotiated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.
Tuesday’s release brought to 60 the number of Israelis freed under the terms of the deal between Israel and Hamas. An additional 21 hostages have been released in separate negotiations. So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons.
The Palestinian prisoners released so far have been mostly teenagers accused of throwing stones and firebombs during confrontations with Israeli forces. Some were convicted by Israeli courts of attempting to carry out deadly attacks. The prisoners are widely seen by Palestinians as heroes resisting occupation.
The freed hostages have mostly stayed out of the public eye, but details of their captivity have started to emerge.
In one of the first interviews with a freed hostage, 78-year-old Ruti Munder told Israel’s Channel 13 television that she was initially fed well in captivity but that conditions worsened as shortages took hold. She said she was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for nearly 50 days.
Israel imposed a siege on Gaza at the start of the war and only allowed a trickle of food, water, medicine, and fuel to enter before the cease-fire, leading to widespread shortages and a territory-wide power blackout.
Tuesday’s exchange of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters in northern Gaza underscored the fragility of the truce, with the warring sides holding their positions near each other. Each side accused the other of being the blame for the outbreak, but there was no further report of violence.
NORTHERN GAZA IN RUINS
The cease-fire has allowed residents who remained in Gaza City and other parts of the north to venture out to survey the destruction and try to locate and bury relatives.
In northern Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp, which Israel bombarded heavily for weeks and which troops surrounded in heavy fighting with militants, “you come across whole city blocks that have been demolished, just a pancake of concrete layered as buildings have collapsed,” said Thomas White, the Gaza director for the U.N. agency caring for Palestinian refugees.
The agency delivered six trucks of aid to the camp, including supplies for a medical center. Footage of White’s visit showed streets lined with destroyed buildings, cars, and piles of rubble.
A U.N.-led aid consortium estimates that, across Gaza, over 234,000 homes have been damaged and 46,000 destroyed, amounting to around 60% of the territory’s housing stock. In the north, the destruction “severely compromises the ability to meet basic requirements to sustain life,” it said.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. More than 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial attack.
At least 77 soldiers have been killed in Israel’s ground offensive. Israel says it has killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.
Authorities were able to reopen the dialysis department at Gaza City’s Shifa hospital after medical teams brought a small generator. Around 20 patients there had gone two or three weeks without dialysis, Dr. Mutasim Salah told Al-Jazeera TV from the hospital.
Two weeks ago, Israeli forces seized the hospital, which Israel had contended was used as a major base by Hamas, an accusation that the group and hospital staff deny.
FEARS FOR THE SOUTH
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensive have displaced more than 1.8 million people, nearly 80% of Gaza’s population, with most having sought refuge in the south, according to the U.N. Hundreds of thousands of people have packed into U.N.-run schools and other facilities, with many forced to sleep on the streets outside because of overcrowding.
However, rain and cold winds sweeping across Gaza have made conditions even more miserable.
On Tuesday, Hanan Tayeh returned to her destroyed home in the central town of Johor al-Deek, scouring for any belongings in the wreckage.
“I came to get anything for my daughters. Winter has come, and I have nothing for them to wear,” she said. “It is cold, we are homeless.”
The cease-fire has allowed increased aid of 160 to 200 trucks a day into Gaza, bringing desperately needed food, water, and medicine, as well as fuel for homes, hospitals, and water treatment plants. Still, it is less than half what Gaza was importing before the fighting, even as humanitarian needs have soared.
Juliette Toma, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said people come to shelters asking for heavy clothes, mattresses, and blankets, and that some are sleeping in damaged vehicles.
“The needs are overwhelming,” she told The Associated Press. “They lost everything, and they need everything.”
Keath and Jeffery reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller in Washington, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
WATCH: Biden discusses work to extend Israel-Hamas cease-fire as hostage releases continue
President Joe Biden spoke at a press conference on Sunday as Hamas freed 17 more hostages, including 14 Israelis and the first American, in a third set of releases under a four-day truce between the militant group and Israel that the U.S. said it hoped would be extended.
Watch the president’s remarks in the player above.
Some hostages were handed over directly to Israel, while others left through Egypt. Israel’s army said one was airlifted directly to a hospital. Speaking with reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Biden said the elderly woman was “very sick and needed immediate medical help.”
The hostages ranged in age from 4 to 84 and included Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old girl and dual citizen whose parents were killed in the Hamas attack that started the war on Oct. 7. “What she endured was unthinkable,” Biden said of the first American freed, adding he did not know the child’s condition but could confirm she was safely in Israel. He did not have updates on other American hostages and said it was his goal to extend the cease-fire deal as long as possible.
WATCH: Israeli physician Describes Mental and physical Recovery ahead of released hostages
In all, nine children ages 17 and younger were on the list, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. 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. The Russian-Israeli citizen was the first male hostage to be freed.
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 cease-fire 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 cease-fire.
Ahead of the latest release, Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip, where he spoke with troops. “We are making every effort to return our hostages, and at the end of the day we will return everyone,” he said, adding that “we are continuing until the end, until victory. Nothing will stop us.” It was not immediately clear where he went inside Gaza.
The cease-fire 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.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The war has claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians killed by Hamas in the initial attack.
Hamas and other militant groups seized around 240 people during the incursion into southern Israel that ignited the war. Fifty-eight have been released, one was freed by Israeli forces and two were found dead inside Gaza.
Families from the southern Israeli town of Kfar Aza embraced, cried, and applauded at the news that the hostages from their town had arrived in Israel. More than 70 members of the kibbutz of around 700 people were killed and 18 were kidnapped.
“I will be so excited to see her,” Shacher Fuchter, 10, said of her friend Ela Elyakim, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.
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 cease-fire, which began Friday, was brokered by Qatar 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. 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.”
