Jerusalem – Plans to release another group of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners suffered a setback on Saturday, the second day of a four-day truce after seven weeks of war.
On Friday evening the Palestinian group freed 13 Israelis, along with an unexpected 10 Thais and one Filipino, and Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners from its jails, hours after the truce took effect.
Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, under a deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Hamas snatched about 240 captives from southern Israel in an unprecedented October 7 attack that Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed an aerial bombing campaign and ground operation in Gaza that the Hamas government says has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians.
Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:
More to be freed
On Friday Hamas released 13 Israeli hostages — all women and children and including dual citizens — along with 10 Thais and one Filipino who were also seized in the October 7 attack.
About 215 hostages are still held in Gaza, the Israeli army has said, adding however that in many cases it is unknown if they are alive or dead.
Under the truce deal brokered mainly by Qatar, Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Gaza relief
AFPTV live footage showed a stream of trucks carrying desperately needed aid entering Gaza for the second successive day.
The United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, said 137 trucks carrying fuel, food, water, medicine and other essentials had passed into the embattled Palestinian territory via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Friday.
Twenty-one critical patients were also evacuated.
OCHA said a total of 200 trucks had been sent from the Israeli village of Nitzana to the Rafah crossing on Friday.
Drone hits Israeli-owned ship
A drone suspected of being launched by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has struck an Israeli-owned cargo ship in the Indian Ocean, according to a US defense official.
The attack, also reported by the maritime security company Ambrey, comes almost a week after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized an Israel-linked cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.
Israel strikes Lebanon’s Hizbollah
The Israeli army said it shot down a surface-to-air missile that was fired from Lebanon and had been targeting an Israeli drone.
The missile did not cross into Israeli territory, the military said on Saturday, adding that it deployed fighter jets to strike Hizbollah infrastructure in response.
A source close to Hizbollah, an ally of Hamas, said the Shiite group would “adhere to the truce as long as the Israelis do”.
The cross-border exchanges of fire mainly between Israel and Hizbollah have killed 109 people in Lebanon, at least 77 of them Hizbollah fighters and 14 civilians, according to an AFP count.
On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
