Israel frees dozens more Palestinians after four hostages identified

Israel released on Thursday 44 Palestinian minors and two woman who had been held in jails, in the latest hostage-prisoner swap of the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.

Palestinian media showed video of the returnees being welcomed into the arms of their relatives, some of whom were screaming with joy, after the prisoners arrived by bus in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

The 46 Palestinians were detained after the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023. Twenty-four of them were to have been released as early as last Saturday as part of the Gaza deal between Israel and Hamas.

But Israel had temporarily suspended their release due to anger over the macabre theatrics at the handover ceremonies of Israeli hostages.

Hamas handed over the bodies of four more deceased hostages on Wednesday. Their remains were identified on Thursday. All four were taken hostage during the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Palestinians released in the afternoon

In return for the four bodies, 596 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons overnight, according to Palestinian officials. On Thursday afternoon, after the four hostages were identified, the 44 minors and two women were released.

More Palestinians prisoners were set to be released in the coming hours.

Under the terms of the ceasefire deal agreed in January, all 33 hostages – 25 alive and eight dead – due to be released by Hamas during the first phase are now back in Israel.

According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, 59 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, although only 27 are believed to be still alive.

Israel was due to release a total of 1,904 Palestinians during the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is set to end this weekend.

The second phase of the ceasefire is intended to definitively end the Gaza war, with Hamas releasing any remaining hostages and the Israeli army completing its withdrawal from Gaza.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said delegates were sent Cairo for second-phase negotiations. Egypt is mediating in the conflict together with the US and Qatar.

Egypt said late Thursday that representatives from Israel, Qatar and the US had held talks on the next steps in the ceasefire, as well as getting more humanitarian aid to Gazans.

Philadelphi Corridor dispute

Reports emerged in Israeli media on Thursday that the Israeli military will not withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border, as stipulated in the ceasefire deal.

“We will not leave the Philadelphi Corridor. We will not allow the Hamas murderers to again roam our borders with pickup trucks and guns, and we will not allow them to rearm through smuggling,” the Times of Israel cited an Israeli official as saying.

According to the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces are to gradually withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor over a period of about a week, beginning this weekend.

In January, Israeli officials emphasized that the military would not leave the coastal strip until all hostages were back home.

Netanyahu is also under pressure from his far-right coalition partners, who are calling for the war to continue until Hamas is completely destroyed.

Driver rams into crowd in northern Israel

A driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd in northern Israel on Thursday, injuring 10 people, two of them seriously, the Magen David Adom rescue service said.

A 17-year-old is in critical condition after suffering a head injury, it added.

Israeli police said the driver hit people waiting at a bus stop at Karkur Junction, south of the city of Haifa.

They added that they had “neutralized” the alleged perpetrator, a 53-year-old Palestinian man from Jenin in the West Bank, who they said was staying in Israel without permission, but did not provide further details. According to unconfirmed media reports, the man was killed.

The alleged attacker initially tried to flee before police shot at him, reports said.

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