TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – Hamas said on Saturday that it was delaying the release of a second group of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners until Israel complies with a truce agreement, in a bitter blow to relatives.
The Palestinian group’s armed wing said the issues of aid deliveries to the northern Gaza Strip and the selection criteria for prisoner releases were holding up the handover.
The unforeseen setback followed an initial exchange on Friday when Hamas released 13 Israelis, all of them women and children, hours after a four-day truce took effect in Gaza.
Ten Thais and one Filipino were also unexpectedly freed.
Israel in turn released 39 Palestinian women and children from its prisons under an agreement that mandates exchanges at a ratio of three to one.
Israel on Saturday denied that it had violated the truce agreement and vowed to continue the war to eliminate Hamas when the pause in fighting ends.
“We will return immediately at the end of the ceasefire to attack Gaza,” Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said.
“We will also do this in order to dismantle Hamas, also to create a great deal of pressure to return as quickly as possible and as many abductees as possible, every last one of them,” he added.
Hamas snatched around 240 captives when they broke through Gaza’s militarized border with Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, according to Israeli authorities.
Following the deadliest attack in its history, Israel launched an air, artillery and naval bombardment alongside a ground offensive to destroy Hamas, killing nearly 15,000 people, according to the Hamas government in Gaza.
Finally home
A video released by Hamas showed masked fighters with rifles, wearing military fatigues and the green headband of the armed wing, handing hostages over to the Red Cross on Friday.
In a Tel Aviv suburb, people applauded and held up Israeli flags as helicopters flew in the freed captives.
At Israel’s Wolfson Medical Center, which received five elderly women hostages, Dr Shoshi Goldner said “there was no one in the room that could hold his feelings and stop crying”.
“You are finally home in a safe place,” Goldner said.
“Today we are excited about the returnees, but I want us not to forget all those who have not yet returned,” Yael Adar, daughter-in-law of former hostage Yaffa Adar, 85, told Israel’s Ynet news website.
Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 hostages during the truce in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners, under an agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Egypt said that it had received positive feedback from both sides about the idea of extending the truce for a day or two and releasing more hostages and prisoners.
“It’s only a start, but so far it’s gone well,” US President Joe Biden told reporters, adding “the chances are real” for extending the truce.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for “a permanent ceasefire and a complete end to this aggression.”
Roongarun Wichanguen, sister of 33-year-old Thai hostage Vetoon Phoome, expressed joy and disbelief that he is coming home. She thought he had been killed by Hamas.
On a video call, “his face was very happy, and he seemed okay,” she said, adding he told her he “was taken care of very well. It looks like he just stayed in a house, not the tunnel.”