Ceasefire in Gaza: Hamas releases three hostages under Israeli bombardment

There are three of them. Three Israeli women detained since October 7, 2023 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and finally released this Sunday, January 19. According to the Hostage Families Forum, these are British-Israeli Emily Damari (28 years old) and Romanian-Israeli Doron Steinbrecher (31 years old), captured on kibbutz Kfar Aza, as well as Romi Gonen (24 years old), kidnapped from the Nova music festival.

Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 94 remain hostages in Gaza, but 34 are believed to have died according to the Israeli army. according to the terms of the agreement concluded between Hamas and the Israeli government, in a first phase of six weeks, hostilities were to cease and 33 Israelis to be returned to their families. Three reception points to collect them have been set up on Israel’s border with Gaza, according to a military official. In exchange, the Israeli authorities said they would release some 1,900 Palestinians within this deadline, 90 of whom were to be released as of Sunday January 19.

100 dead in Gaza since the announcement of a ceasefire agreement

Since Wednesday January 15, the date of the announcement of an agreement, Israel has not stopped bombing the Palestinian territory, causing more than 100 deaths, while, according to a Palestinian diplomat in Ramallah joined by Humanity, “it was tacitly understood that hostilities would stop”. As a result, Hamas had difficulty getting around and was only able to provide the names of the three Israelis late on Sunday, late in the morning. In this interval of almost three hours, the Israeli army struck Gaza again, killing eight people.

Benyamin Netanyahu warned in any case that for him it was a “provisional ceasefire” and reserved “the right to resume the war if necessary”. The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and two other members of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party announced they were leaving the government and the prime minister’s coalition, indicating however that they would not seek to bring down the majority.

In Tel Aviv, gathering of thousands of people to celebrate these first liberations

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has not (yet) taken the plunge but has said that if Israel agrees to end the war before achieving its goals in Gaza – which include the complete destruction of Hamas – , he and his party, Religious Zionism, would also leave the coalition. He claimed to have received commitments to this effect. “There is no other way to fully achieve the goals of the war: the destruction of Hamas and the return of all our hostages,” he said on his Facebook page.

Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv to celebrate these first liberations. In the West Bank, the Israeli army had banned any celebration for the return of Palestinian prisoners. In the Gaza Strip, thousands of refugees who were in the south, in Rafah and Khan Younes, took the road north to reach their homes or rather what remains of them.

In the center, in Deir el-Balah, hooded and armed Hamas fighters marched. In two weeks new discussions should begin for the second phase of the agreement. Until then, anything can still happen.