Israel and Hamas exchanged a brand new group of hostages and prisoners on Thursday in a handover that devolved into chaos because the armed militants struggled to regulate a chanting, jostling crowd of Palestinians attempting to catch a glimpse of Israelis held captive throughout 15 months of battle.
Hamas launched a complete of eight Israeli and Thai hostages within the Gaza Strip, together with the tightly choreographed handover of an Israeli soldier, Agam Berger, 20, within the northern city of Jabaliya.
However the tumult surrounding the discharge of two different Israeli hostages — Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Moses, 80, within the metropolis of Khan Younis — infuriated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. It led his workplace to announce he had suspended the discharge of greater than 100 Palestinian prisoners as known as for underneath the truce brokered by Qatar, Egypt and america.
The episode briefly solid doubt on whether or not the prisoner launch would occur in any respect.
Mr. Netanyahu blasted the “surprising scenes” of crowds yelling and jostling to get nearer to a fearful-looking Ms. Yehud and a grim-looking Mr. Moses. “That is extra proof of the inconceivable brutality of the Hamas terrorist group,” the Israel prime minister mentioned.
He known as on the worldwide mediators to safe ensures from Hamas for “the protected exit of our hostages within the subsequent rounds.” The Israeli authorities later relented, releasing the imprisoned Palestinians, saying that mediators had promised protected passage for hostages in future exchanges.
In a press release, Hamas mentioned that the turnout of the crowds for the hostage handovers confirmed that Palestinians had been decided to stay on their land. To Israelis, the chaos illustrated Hamas’s want to humiliate and torment the hostages at the same time as they had been being freed.
In earlier handovers, the militants have pushed hostages into jubilant, generally jeering crowds earlier than transferring them to Purple Cross officers, who then handed them to Israeli officers.
Along with three Israeli hostages, Hamas on Thursday freed 5 Thai agricultural employees who had been amongst these kidnapped when the militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. They had been Pongsak Thanna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Seathao and Surasak Lamnao. The destiny of 1 remaining Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, remained unclear.
The exchanges got here through the first part of a provisional cease-fire lasting 42 days, and Israel and Hamas nonetheless have to barter the following one.
Earlier than the hostages had been freed in Khan Younis on Thursday, massive numbers of Palestinians gathered close to the house of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza who was killed by Israel in October. A small white van carrying the captives and surrounded by armed gunmen slowly pushed its method by the yelling crowds.
Photographs and video footage present Ms. Yehud, one of many final dwelling feminine hostages to be held in Gaza, strolling cautiously by the throngs whereas surrounded by rifle-wielding militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad as they made their method towards a Purple Cross convoy. The Purple Cross handed Ms. Yehud over to Israeli troopers.
The third freed Israeli hostage, Mr. Moses, was additionally compelled to wend his method by a good crowd of spectators.
Yves Daccord, a former director basic of the Purple Cross, mentioned the handovers in Khan Younis had been “dangerous,” “unacceptable” and “completely psychological torture.”
“Releasing hostages on this method creates an unlimited trauma on prime of every little thing that has already occurred,” he mentioned in an interview. Ideally, he mentioned, hostages ought to be launched away from crowds and cameras.
After her launch, Ms. Yehud was taken to Sheba Hospital within the metropolis of Ramat Gan, close to Tel Aviv. She was met with crowds in Israel, too, however they had been welcoming. “Our life’s mission to convey Arbel again to us has succeeded,” her household mentioned in a press release.
Ms. Yehud was 28 when she was taken hostage alongside together with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, from their house in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. Mr. Cunio is believed to nonetheless be a captive in Gaza. Ms. Yehud’s brother, Dolev Yehud, a medic, was recognized last year as having been killed through the Hamas-led assault.
In a press release posted by the Hostage Households Discussion board, an umbrella group, Ms. Yehud’s household urged Israeli officers to pursue the cease-fire settlement till all hostages had been launched. “Everybody have to be introduced house instantly in order that we are able to heal as a society,” it mentioned.
Ms. Berger, the soldier returned house from northern Gaza, was in “good” situation, based on Dr. Eytan Wirtheim, the chief government of Beilinson Hospital, the place she was taken.
She had been 19 and serving as a lookout on the Nahal Oz military base close to the border with Gaza when the Hamas-led militants stormed the ability, killing greater than 50 troopers and abducting her and 6 different troopers. 4 of them had been released in an exchange on Saturday.
These 4 troopers have been “bettering from day after day” within the hospital, Dr. Wirtheim mentioned in a televised assertion. He mentioned that they had determined to remain within the hospital to maintain Ms. Berger firm throughout her first days of freedom.
Mr. Moses, a farming skilled, was 79 when he was kidnapped in Kibbutz Nir Oz after attempting to reason with the marauding militants.
His associate, Efrat Katz, had hidden inside a protected room of their house together with her daughter and two visiting grandchildren, till they, too, had been taken. Their kidnapping was captured on a video that confirmed them squashed collectively at the back of a pickup.
Ms. Katz was killed when an Israeli helicopter responding to the assault fired on the automobile. Her daughter and grandchildren had been launched in November 2023.
The freed Thai males underwent preliminary medical examinations on Thursday and had been discovered to be in “good” situation, a spokesman for Israel’s international minister, Gideon Saar, mentioned in a press release.
Vilas Thanna, the daddy of Mr. Pongsak, who labored on a fruit farm, might barely get the phrases out as he digested the information of his son’s freedom “After we are joyful, we cry,” he mentioned. “After we are unhappy, we additionally cry. However these are joyful tears.”
Financial hardship has spurred 1000’s of Thais, notably from the Isaan area of northeastern Thailand, to take agricultural jobs in Israel. Thai farmhands working in Israel suffered a heavy toll within the 2023 Hamas-led assaults. No less than 39 had been killed and a minimum of 31 taken hostage, based on the Thai International Ministry.
Twenty-three of them had been launched in November 2023. Two others died in captivity, the International Ministry mentioned final Might.
Hamas had pledged to free a minimum of 33 hostages in change for greater than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners through the cease-fire’s first part. On Thursday, Israel launched 110 Palestinian prisoners, together with 32 serving life sentences for lethal assaults in opposition to Israelis.
Earlier than the releases, Palestinians stood outdoors a authorities recreation heart within the West Financial institution metropolis of Ramallah on Thursday, restlessly checking their telephones for updates on the prisoners.
Samar Faisal stood within the crisp winter air, shivering as a lot from pleasure because the chilly. She was in disbelief, she mentioned. After greater than 20 years in an Israeli jail, her brother was being launched.
“I’m anxious and praying for the second I lastly see him,” Ms. Faisal mentioned, as volunteers in fluorescent vests moved by the gang.
For some ready outdoors the recreation heart, anticipation was tempered by sorrow.
Alaa Zubeidi was wearing black in reminiscence of her eldest son, Mohamed, who she mentioned had been killed by an Israeli drone strike in September of their hometown, Jenin. Now, she was awaiting the discharge of her husband, Zakariya Zubeidi, who over the previous 20 years has been a militant, a theater director and an escaped prisoner. Israeli forces recaptured him in 2019.
Lastly, round 7 p.m., a sequence of buses arrived, carrying dozens of former Palestinian prisoners. Sixty-seven arrived in Ramallah on Thursday, together with 27 kids, officers mentioned. An extra 14 Palestinians arrived in Jerusalem and 9 in Gaza, whereas 20 had been despatched to Egypt.
In Beitunia, within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, as Purple Cross buses carrying freed Palestinian prisoners arrived, Palestinians hurled stones at Israeli forces, who fired stun grenades in response, footage live-streamed on Arabic tv networks confirmed. It was unclear if there have been any casualties.
The exchanges had been the third swap within the first part within the 42-day truce that halted the preventing between Hamas and Israel. On Saturday, Hamas is predicted to launch three extra male hostages in change for extra Palestinian prisoners.
In all, some 250 folks had been kidnapped from Israel through the 2023 assault and about 1,200 killed, the Israelis mentioned. Israel responded by unleashing airstrikes throughout Gaza. The devastation displaced thousands and thousands of Palestinians and led to the loss of life of greater than 47,000, based on Gazan well being officers, whose figures don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
On Thursday, months after Israel introduced it had killed the chief of Hamas’s army wing, Muhammad Deif, in an airstrike, a Hamas official confirmed the loss of life in a video assertion.
Reporting was contributed by Isabel Kershner, Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, Liam Stack and Fatima AbdulKarim.
