Israel-Hamas truce begins with swap of hostages and prisoners
A general view shows the Israeli Ofer military prison between Ramallah and Baytunia in West on Friday. AFP
Hamas fighters released 24 hostages on Friday during the first day of the war's first truce, the Red Cross said, including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers.
Nine hours after guns fell silent for the first time in seven weeks, the International Red Cross said it had begun an operation to facilitate the transfer of hostages in Gaza to Israel in return for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. It later said 24 hostages had been freed in Gaza.
"The deep pain that family members separated from their loved ones feel is indescribable. We are relieved that some will be reunited after long agony," said Fabrizio Carboni, the International Committee of the Red Cross's regional director for the Near and Middle East.
Israeli media reported that 13 women and children had been handed over to the Red Cross and to an Egyptian security team assisting their release. The Israeli government and Hamas did not immediately confirm this, Reuters reported.
"I'm going home," Omar Jibrin, 16, told AFP after he emerged from a hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip where he and eight family members had sought refuge.
In Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza where many Palestinians fled, a cacophony of car horns and ambulance sirens has replaced the sound of war.
For Khaled Al Halabi, the truce is "a chance to breathe" after nearly seven weeks of war that began when Hamas broke through Gaza's militarised border to kill, according to Israeli officials, about 1,200 people and seize around 240 Israeli and foreign hostages.
Halabi had taken refuge in Rafah but is from Gaza City in the north, much of which has been reduced to rubble.
Israel's retaliatory air, artillery and naval strikes alongside a ground offensive have killed about 15,000 people, the Hamas government in Gaza said.
Mediator Qatar said the first group of 13 hostages released would be women and children. They would be freed "by 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) at the latest", according to a Hamas official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
Hopes for longer-term
Gazans have struggled to survive with shortages of water and other essentials. Trucks carrying more aid, including fuel, gas, and food, began moving into Gaza from the Rafah crossing with Egypt shortly after the truce began at 7:00 am.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, expressed hope in Geneva that the pause "leads to a longer-term humanitarian ceasefire for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and beyond."
He repeated the need for access across Gaza, especially in the north "where the damage and the humanitarian needs are the greatest."
The agreement came after weeks of talks involving Israel, Palestinian militant groups, Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Over the four days, at least 50 hostages are expected to be freed, leaving an estimated 190 in the hands of Hamas. In exchange, 150 Palestinians prisoners are expected to be released.
According to the UN, 1.7 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people are estimated to have been displaced by the fighting. Now, thousands of them are trying to get home.
Carefully prepared
Ziv Agmon, legal adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, told reporters the hostages will be received individually or in groups by the International Committee of the Red Cross, taken across the border and handed to the Israeli army.
From Al Arish, in the Sinai, they would be flown to Israel, an Egyptian security source said.
The Israeli soldiers are being carefully prepared to receive potentially deeply traumatised women and children.
After medical examinations, the former captives will be able to telephone family members before reunions later at Israeli medical facilities, Agmon added.
AFP has confirmed the identities of 210 of the roughly 240 hostages.
At least 35 of those seized were children, with 18 of them aged 10 or under at the time.
Hamas earlier released four women and Israeli forces rescued another. Two other captives, including a woman soldier, were found dead by Israeli troops in Gaza.
Netanyahu's office said it had received "a first list of names" of those due to be released and been in contact with the families.
Agence France-Presse
