Israel simultaneously announced that it would not withdraw from southern Lebanon on Sunday, as stipulated in the cease-fire agreement signed with Beirut at the end of November and which ended two months of open war with Hezbollah.
Hamas will give mediators to the day “the names of the four” hostages chosen in Gaza since October 7, 2023, said Bassem Naïm, member of the Movement Political Bureau, based in Doha, in a telephone interview with AFP. They will be exchanged for an unknown number of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
“The al-Qassam brigades (Hamas armed branch, editor’s note) and other factions of the resistance will release the four prisoners on Saturday” and entrust them to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said a source close to Hamas under cover of anonymity, without time precision.
The first phase of the current truce, which is due to last six weeks and started on Sunday, should allow the release of 33 hostages against some 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.
– families in doubt –
Three young women who have already been released last weekend, there will then remain 26 liberatable hostages on this first phase. The names were communicated but without chronological liberation order.
The attack on Hamas on October 7, 2023 led to 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, 91 are still in Gaza, including 34 dead according to the army.
Others have been announced dead by Hamas but without Israeli confirmation or evidence, plunging families into atrocious doubt. Some have several relatives concerned, representing, or not, on the list of liberables.
In retaliation in October 7, Israel launched a devastating offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip, which left at least 47,283 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health. The operation caused a humanitarian disaster.
The truce has been generally respected since Sunday, excluding some incidents. According to the agreement, after the release of the four new hostages, the displaced “in the south of the Gaza Strip will begin to return north,” said Hamas manager. “An Egypto-Qatari committee will oversee the implementation of the agreement on the ground”.
“The agreement should keep, but if it does not hold, there will be a lot of problems,” US President Donald Trump said on Thursday, expressing journalists.
– Israeli withdrawal delayed in Lebanon –
On the Lebanese border, the other ceasefire involving Israel, this time with Hezbollah, still held on Friday.
-But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the gradual withdrawal of his troops from southern Lebanon “would continue” beyond the 60 days provided by the agreement, this Sunday.
The provisions planned “not having been fully accomplished by Lebanon, the steps withdrawal process will continue in agreement with the United States,” said its office.
One of the clauses stipulated that “the Lebanese army is deployed in southern Lebanon” and requires “the withdrawal of Hezbollah beyond (river) Litani”, he added in a press release.
Believing that this is not the case, Israel “will not endanger its localities and citizens and will achieve the objectives of the war” to allow its displaced residents of the border area to return “in security”.
The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun had claimed on Saturday that this Israeli withdrawal is “in the deadlines set”. At the same time, his army was to deploy alongside peacekeepers in the sector.
He had also denounced “the continuation of Israeli violations”, deploring “the enermming of houses and the destruction of border villages”.
– “War Methods” in the West Bank –
At the same time, Israeli soldiers continue on Friday in the West Bank occupied for the fourth consecutive day an operation baptized “Wall of Iron” supported by bulldozers, planes and armored vehicles in Jenine, one of the Bastions of the Palestinian Resistance.
Hundreds of Palestinians left the vast refugee camp of this city in the north of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 on Thursday.
The governor of Jénine, Kamal Abou al-Roub, reported an Israeli evacuation order “via speakers”, but the Israeli army denied such order.
For its part, the UN denounced the use of “war methods” and “the illegal appeal to the lethal force” by Israel.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has confirmed the Palestinian assessment of 12 Palestinians killed and some 40 injured, adding that “most of them” was apparently not armed “.
