Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday after eight hostages in the Gaza Strip were released by militants led by Hamas earlier in the day in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly questioned the exchange and stressed the fragility of a high fire That began this month.
Crowds of Palestinians, the family and friends of the released prisoners, but also in joyful supporters, the harassed buses that transport the prisoners. As soon as they left the buses, the crowd raised the prisoners in the air.
The released prisoners include 30 who fulfilled life imprisonment against the Israelis; Seven were allowed to return to occupied West Bank, but the rest were transferred to Egypt before a greater deportation.
Prison launches began on Thursday night after the militants in Gaza released three Israeli and five Thai nationals, who worked on farms in southern Israel when they took as hostages more than 15 months ago.
The releases are part of a high fire destined to end the most deadly and more destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, and ensure the release of dozens more than hostage hostages in the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023 , which turned on the war.
Hamas confirmed the death of Mohammed Deif, head of his military wing, six months after Israel announced that he was killed.
It was the first statement that Hamas launched with Deif’s condition since the Israeli army announced last August that he was killed in an air attack in southern Gaza the previous month.
Thursday’s announcement culminated months of speculation about the fate of Deif, one of the alleged intellectual authors of October 7 attack to Israel that caused the war in Gaza. For years, he headed the most Wanthed list in Israel.
Caos scenes like hostages are thrown
The fights exploded when the bus convoy transported to the Palestinian prisoners started from their Israeli prison in the West Bank. Palestinian teenagers threw stones outside the complex and Israeli forces fired tear gas while trying to clear the area.
Three Palestinians were injured in confrontations outside the prison, according to the Palestinian red crescent, which said that Israeli forces had used shots and stunned grenades to disperse the crowds.
As the Red Cross buses approached, the families of the Palestinian prisoners captured their first glimpses of their loved ones through the bus windrisas, some were destroyed in the body combat of stone and tear gas launch .
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Zakaria Zubeidi, an outstanding former militant leader and theater director who participated in a dramatic Jailbreak in 2021 before being reloaded days later, carried a gray prison monkey and showed a victory signal from inside one of the buses.
The uproar arrived hours after a delivery of chaotic hostages in the strip of Gaza, where the masked militants moved some captives through a noisy crowd of thousands of Palestinians.
Hamas launched seven of the hostages in front of the destroyed house of his murdered leader, Yahya Sinwar, as thousands were pressed. The militant group called it a “message of determination”, but triggered the latest of a series of disputes sent by US and Arab mediators fight to repair the truce.
The first hostage, the 20 -year -old Soldier Berger, was released after Hamas demanded it in front of a smaller crowd in the Urban Jabaliya refugee camp very destroyed in northern Gaza.
Hours later, a chaotic scene developed in a delivery of the other seven in the southern city of Khan Younis. Hundreds of Hamas militants and the smallest Islamic Jihad group arrived with a convoy, and thousands of people gathered to look, some from the fabrics of the bombarded buildings.
The images showed Arbel Yehoud, 29, 29, who seemed stunned when the masked militants pushed her through the crowd screaming, pushing people back. Gadi Moses, an 80 -year -old Israeli man and five Thai workers were also published. Both Yehoud and Moses are two German-Israeli citizens.
Netanyahu condemned the “shocking scenes” and asked international mediators to guarantee the safety of hostages in future releases.
Israel identified the Thai hostages launched as: Watchara Sriaoun, 33; Pongsak Thaenna, 36; Sathian Suwannakham, 35; Surak Rumnao, 32; and Bannawat Saethao, 27. Thai officials said they seemed to be a good health.
Twenty -three Thai were among more than 100 hostages released for a high -week fire in November 2023. Israel says that three Thai remain in captivity, two of which are believed to be dead.
Yehoud had been at the center of a dispute earlier this week on the sequence in which hostages would be launched. The United States, Egypt and Qatar, who negotiated the high fire after a year of difficult negotiations, resolved it with an agreement that Yehoud would be released with others on Thursday.
Some 20 Yehoud friends gathered in South Israel saw how the tense scene was held on live television. Some cried. Others had their hands on their eyes or mouths. The crowd began to cry after they delivered it to the Red Cross.
Gadi Moses, 80, seemed stunned when he was led by Israeli soldiers to the area where he was ready to meet with his family. The images released by the Israeli army showed their relatives broken into the room, hugging the old man. His daughter repeatedly exclaimed: “My father, my father!”
The high fire remains for now, but the next phase will be more difficult
In the first phase of Alto El Fuego, Hamas will launch a total of 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children, older adults and sick or injured men, in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says that Hamas has confirmed that eight of the hostages that will be released in this phase are dead.
A white bus line that transports Palestinian prisoners who freed themselves on Thursday to the left of the West Bank and headed towards Beitunah, near the occupied city of Ramallah, where relatives and celebrations were waiting.
The Palestinians have encouraged the liberation of prisoners, whom they see widely as heroes who have sacrificed for the cause of ending the occupation of Israel lands in decades who want for a future state.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have retired from most of Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return to what remains of their homes and humanitarian groups to increase assistance.
The agreement requires that Israel and Hamas negotiate a second phase in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages and the high fire would continue indefinitely. The war could be resumed in early March if an agreement is not reached.
Israel says he is still committed to destroying Hamas, even after the militant group reaffirmed his government over Gaza a few hours from the truce. A key right partner in the Netanyahu coalition is already asking that the war resumes after the first phase of the high fire.
Hamas says he will not free the remaining hostages without the end of the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Hamas began the war when he sent thousands of fighters broken into Israel. The militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250.
Israel’s subsequent air and land war was among the most mortal and destructive in decades. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not say how many dead were militants.
The Israeli army says that it killed more than 17,000 combatants, without providing evidence, and that it did everything possible to try to save civilians. Kake Hamas civil deaths because their combatants operate in dense residential neighborhoods and put military infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.
The Israeli offensive has transformed whole neighborhoods into mounds of gray debris, and it is not clear how or when something will be rebuilt. About 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often several times, with hundreds of thousands of people living in miserable tents camps or closed schools.
Shurafa reported from Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip and Krauss de Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed.
