Second day of truce in Gaza, 90 Palestinian detainees released

(Keystone-ATS) From the first hours of the truce on Sunday, humanitarian aid flowed into the ruined Palestinian territory, where 630 trucks entered during the day, according to the UN, including 300 intended for the north of the Gaza Strip.

The three women released after 471 days of captivity were reunited with their loved ones and were hospitalized “in stable condition,” according to a doctor.

Then early Monday night, 90 Palestinians were released from the Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank and from a detention center in Jerusalem, under the exchange planned during this first phase of the ceasefire. -fire.

A jubilant crowd cheered as the buses passed on a road in Beitunia, near Ofer prison.

“Only ruins”

As soon as the guns fell silent, thousands of displaced Palestinians took to the roads on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, in the middle of an apocalyptic landscape of ruins and gutted buildings.

“We are finally home. There is no more house, only ruins. But it’s our home,” testified Rana Mohsen, a 43-year-old woman who returned to Jabalia, in the north of the territory.

Same scene in Rafah, all the way to the south. “We couldn’t even find the exact location of our houses” because of “the extent of the destruction,” said Maria Gad El Haq, also displaced by the war like almost all of the 2.4 millions of Gaza residents.

The truce came into effect on the eve of the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, who has put intense pressure on Israel to reach a deal before he arrives at the White House.

The three-phase agreement concluded on January 15 through Qatar, the United States and Egypt nourishes the hope of lasting peace in the Palestinian territory, where the war was launched on October 7, 2023 by the bloody Hamas attack in southern Israel.

During a first phase of 42 days, 33 Israeli hostages held in Gaza must be released in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians detained by Israel, and the Israeli army must withdraw from part of the territory.

Next release Saturday

The three hostages released on Sunday, Emily Damari, a 28-year-old British-Israeli, Doron Steinbrecher, a 31-year-old Romanian-Israeli, and Romi Gonen, 24, were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza City, where a crowd of civilians and armed men surrounded the convoy.

“After 471 days Emily is finally back,” testified her mother, Mandy Damari, but “for too many other families the impossible wait continues.”

Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said “three or four abducted women” would be “released every week.”

A senior Hamas official told AFP that the next release would take place on Saturday.

“Other families are anxiously awaiting the return of their loved ones,” said ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric, calling on all parties to “respect their commitments, in order to ensure that the next operations take place safely. security “.

“The wait was extremely difficult. But thanks to God, we were sure that one day we would be freed,” said journalist Bouchra al-Tawil, a Palestinian imprisoned in March 2024, who was part of the first group of released prisoners, mostly made up of women and men. children.

“Reach a million people”

During the first phase of the truce, the second phase will be negotiated, which should allow the definitive end of the war and 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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel reserved “the right to resume the war if necessary”.

Hamas’ military wing said the truce depended on Israel “compliance with commitments.”

The truce is accompanied by an influx of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, subjected by Israel to a total siege since the start of the war, with a target of 600 trucks per day.

“After 15 months of war, the humanitarian needs are staggering,” said the head of the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), Tom Flechter.

“We are trying to reach a million people as quickly as possible,” Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, told AFP.

The attack of October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

Of 251 people kidnapped, 91 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 dead according to the Israeli army.

At least 46,913 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.