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Truce in Gaza: new exchange of hostages for prisoners between Israel and Hamas
Four Israeli soldiers were released on Saturday after more than 15 months of captivity in the Gaza Strip, but Israel demanded the release of another hostage before allowing the expected return to the north of the Palestinian territory. The four soldiers have was first given to the Red Cross which transferred them to the Israeli army, as part of a new exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners. According to the army, they found “their parents” shortly after their arrival on Israeli territory. Israel must release 200 Palestinians in its prisons during the day, according to Palestinian sources, in accordance with the truce agreement in the band of Gaza devastated by the war. Before getting into the Red Cross vehicles in Gaza, the four hostages were presented on a podium installed in a place in the city of Gaza, in the middle of a compact crowd framed by combatants In trellis and hoodies of the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, military branch of Hamas, and al-qods brigades, an armed branch of Islamic jihad, according to an AFP journalist, the young soldiers in khaki uniform who seem healthy , greeted the crowd briefly before descending from the platform to get into white 4x4s. Aged from 19 to 20 years, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag and Naama Levy carried out their military service, assigned to monitoring the Gaza Strip during their kidnapping on October 7, 2023 during the Hamas commandos in the South of the country. They were released for almost a week after the entry into force of an agreement of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after more than 15 months of war between Hamas and Israë, which plunged The small Palestinian territory in a serious humanitarian crisis. According to the agreement, immediately after the release of the four new hostages, “the people displaced in the south of the Gaza Strip will begin to return north,” said on Friday at the AFP, Bassem Naïm, member of the Hamas political bureau based in Doha. But on Saturday, Israel conditioned the return of the Palestinian displaced people to the release of a civil hostage, Arbel Yehud, supposed to be released on Saturday, according to the office of the Israeli Prime Minister , Benjamin Netnayahu. Two Palestinian leaders assured AFP that the hostage was “alive and healthy” .- Cry of joy to Tel Aviv -A Tel Aviv, on the “Place des Otages”, relatives and sympathizers of the four Soldiers cried out, some were moved to tears following the release of the hostages live. “Bring them home now, all of them!” Launched some in the crowd, triggering waves of applause. The 200 Palestinians who must be released during the day by Israel, some will be brought back to Gaza and others in the occupied West Bank. Their buses left OFER prison on Saturday, in an occupied West Bank, and that Ktziot, in the Negev desert, according to AFP journalists. The list includes 120 sentenced to life imprisonment, 70 of which must be exiled outside the Palestinian territories, said a Palestinian source. On their appearance Mohammed all, the Palestinian detained the longest without interruption by Israel, according to the prisoners club Palestinians. 69 years old, this member of the Fatah, the movement founded by Yasser Arafat, historic leader of the Palestinians, has been imprisoned since 1985.- 33 hostages against 1,900 prisoners-this new exchange of prisoners-hostages intervenes as part of the truce entry into vigor Sunday and the first phase of which is to last six weeks and allow the release of 33 hostages against some 1,900 Palestinian prisoners. After the release of three young Israeli hostages in Gaza on January 19, in exchange for that of 90 Palestinians, mostly women and minors, he will remain at the end of this exchange 26 Israeli hostages liberable during the first phase of the agreement . All the names were communicated but without chronological liberation order, plunging the families of the hostages in an unbearable doubt. The Israeli army said it was very worried about the “spell” of the last two hostages in the Gaza Strip, KFIR and Ariel Bibas, aged 2 and 5, kidnapped with their mother on Saturday. Phase of the truce will be negotiated the terms of the second, which should allow the release of the last hostages, before the last stage relating to the reconstruction of Gaza and the restitution of the bodies of the hostages who died in captivity. 2023 resulted in the death of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Out of 251 people then removed, 87 are still in Gaza, including 34 dead according to the army. Others were announced dead by Hamas but without Israeli confirmation. In retaliation in October 7, Israel launched an offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip, which left at least 47,283 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health. Trêve has been generally respected since Sunday , apart from a few incidents. In less than a week, it allowed the entry into the small territory of several thousand humanitarian aid trucks.
