Israel-Hamas war live: 17 hostages freed by Hamas arrive in Israel; 39 Palestinian prisoners released | Israel-Hamas war

November 26, 2023 Stan

Seventeen freed hostages arrive in Israel as 39 Palestinian prisoners released

Thirteen Israelis and four Thai nationals arrived in Israel on Sunday in the second release of hostages from Hamas captivity in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a deal briefly endangered by a dispute about aid delivery into Gaza.

Reuters reports the dispute was overcome by the mediation of Egypt and Qatar but that it threatened the truce to free captives, underscoring the fragility of the pact meant to release 50 hostages held by the Palestinian militant groups and 150 prisoners held in Israeli jails over four days.

Television images showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza, as Hamas handed the hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross late on Saturday.

Six of the 13 Israelis released were women and seven were children and teenagers.

“The released hostages are on their way to hospitals in Israel, where they will reunite with their families,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand, who was abducted by Hamas gunmen, is reunited with her father at an undisclosed location in Israel after being released in the exchange deal. Photograph: Israel Defence Forces/Reuters

Israel released 39 Palestinians – six women and 33 minors – from two prisons, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

Some of the Palestinians arrived at Al-Bireh municipality square in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where thousands of citizens awaited them, a Reuters witness said.

A Palestinian official familiar with the diplomatic moves said Hamas would continue the truce, the first halt in fighting since Hamas’ deadly rampage through southern Israel on 7 October.

Key events

The 17 hostages freed by Hamas late on Saturday included Maya Regev, the first of the hostages taken from the Supernova music festival to be released since Hamas fighters swooped on the event during their attack on southern Israel on 7 October, Agence France-Presse reports.

Regev, 21, and her 18-year-old brother Itay, who was also abducted from the festival, were shown tied up in the back of a pick-up truck in a video posted on social media after the attack.

“I am so excited and happy that Maya is on her way to us now,” her mother, Mirit, said in a statement released by the hostage families’ forum.

Nonetheless, my heart is split because my son Itay is still in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

Maya Regev in an undated photo. Photograph: Hostages and Missing Families Forum/AP

An Israeli police investigation into the Hamas attack on the music festival updated the death toll earlier this month to 364, according to Israeli media reports.

That figure would make up nearly one-third of all of those killed during the 7 October onslaught, the Times of Israel reported, citing Channel 12.

Earlier counts had placed the death count from the Supernova attack in Kibbutz Re’im at 270.

Israeli police reportedly believe that Hamas did not know about the festival before carrying out the attack.

The women of the Munder family, Ruti and Keren, knew that after everything that had already been taken from them, they could not afford to lose track of time.

So while they were held captive in Gaza with Keren’s nine-year-old son, Ohad, they counted the days as they dragged slowly into weeks and then a second month.

“They said that they tried to memorise the days,” said Rony Raviv, niece of Ruti, 78, and cousin to Keren.

They always knew what day it was, and what the date was. They knew that they were there for 49 days. They were together the whole time.

Raviv spoke to her relatives on the phone on Friday, hours after they were released as part of a temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Ohad’s emotional reunion with his father east of Tel Aviv on Friday has been posted online. Ohad, who turned nine in captivity, also spoke to a friend on Friday evening, and other friends planned to visit him on Saturday, Raviv said.

But all the newly released hostages were at the start of a difficult recovery. “They’re still in shock, all of them,” Raviv said.

For the rest of this report from Emine Sinmaz and Emma Graham-Harrison on how hostages’ relatives are glimpsing what their loved ones endured as first words are exchanged after their release, see here:

List of third group of hostages set for release goes to Netanyahu’s office

Hamas fighters were set on Sunday to release a third group of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a day after freeing 17 captives.

The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had received a list of the hostages due to be released, Agence France-Presse reports.

The list was being checked by security officials, it said, and families of the hostages had been informed.

In a sign of the fragility of the exchanges, the last swap – on Saturday – delayed for hours after Hamas accused Israel of breaching its side of the deal that led to a four-day ceasefire.

Despite the dispute, Hamas released 13 Israelis and four Thai hostages late that night, officials said. Israel said it in turn freed 39 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli forces shoot dead two Palestinians in West Bank, says Palestinian ministry

Two Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces in Nablus and Jenin early on Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said, bringing to six the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank overnight, Reuters reports.

Seventeen freed hostages arrive in Israel as 39 Palestinian prisoners released

Television images showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza, as Hamas handed the hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross late on Saturday.

Six of the 13 Israelis released were women and seven were children and teenagers.

“The released hostages are on their way to hospitals in Israel, where they will reunite with their families,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Israel released 39 Palestinians – six women and 33 minors – from two prisons, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

Some of the Palestinians arrived at Al-Bireh municipality square in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where thousands of citizens awaited them, a Reuters witness said.

A Palestinian official familiar with the diplomatic moves said Hamas would continue the truce, the first halt in fighting since Hamas’ deadly rampage through southern Israel on 7 October.

Opening summary

Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Adam Fulton. The top development this morning

Thirteen Israelis and four Thai nationals released from Hamas captivity arrived in Israel on Sunday in the second step of the crucial hostage deal, which briefly risked falling apart due to a dispute over the delivery of aid supplies into Gaza.

Television footage showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza, as Hamas handed over the captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross late on Saturday, Reuters reports. Of the 13 Israelis released, six were women and seven were children and teenagers.

An International Red Cross vehicle reportedly carrying hostages released by Hamas driving towards the Rafah border point with Egypt ahead of their transfer to Israel late on Saturday. Photograph: Belal Al Sabbagh/AFPTV/AFP/Getty Images

Meanwhile, a bus carrying nearly three dozen Palestinian prisoners released by Israel arrived in the West Bank early on Sunday, following the Hamas release of 17 hostages late on Saturday. Hundreds of people greeted the Red Cross bus as it arrived in Al Bireh, Associated Press reported. Crowds chanted “God is great” as it arrived, while many chanted pro-Hamas slogans and held Hamas flags.

Palestinian prisoners are welcomed in Ramallah, West Bank, after being released by Israel. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

More on that story soon. In other key developments as it turns 8.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:

The UN said 61 trucks carrying medical supplies, food and water had delivered their payloads in the northern Gaza Strip as the pause in fighting allows aid to enter the territory. Another 200 trucks had been dispatched to Gaza from Nitzana in Israel, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Saturday, with 187 of them having made it past the border by the early evening local time.
Israeli troops killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian ministry of health said. A 25-year-old doctor was killed early in the morning outside his home in Qabatiya, near Jenin, it said. Another Palestinian was killed in el-Bireh, near Ramallah. Four people were also killed by Israeli army fire in Jenin, during an incursion by a large number of armoured vehicles into the town. Witnesses told Agence France-Presse on Saturday that the Israeli army was surrounding Jenin’s public hospital and the Ibn Sina clinic, and that soldiers were searching ambulances. They also reported heavy fighting with automatic weapons.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Israeli fire hit one of its patrols in the country’s south on Saturday, despite the Hamas-Israel truce largely quietening the Lebanon-Israel frontier. Around noon, a Unifil patrol was hit by Israeli military gunfire in the vicinity of Aitarun, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said. “No peacekeepers were injured, but the vehicle was damaged.”
Egypt said on Saturday it had received positive signals from all parties over a possible extension of the Gaza truce for one or two days, Reuters reported. Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said the country was holding extensive talks with all parties to reach an agreement over extending the four-day ceasefire, which “means the release of more detainees in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails”.
The number of Thai nationals believed to be held hostage by Hamas has increased by two, Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs has said. This means that, after Saturday’s release of four more Thai hostages, a further 18 Thai nationals are still being held by Hamas.
The body of a Tanzanian student who went missing in Israel after the bloody Hamas attack last month was due to be returned home on Sunday, his family said. Clemence Felix Mtenga, 22, was one of two Tanzanians reported missing after the 7 October attack.
In the UK, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London on Saturday to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in the latest major demonstration in the capital. Police were handing out leaflets to provide “absolute clarity” on what would be deemed an offence. It came after weeks of pressure on the force over the handling of the now-regular demonstrations.