The Israelis and the Palestinians rejoice after more hostages and prisoners are released

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip (AP) – Eight more The hostages were released of the Gaza Strip by militants led by Hamas on Thursday in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly delayed the release of Israel from 110 Palestinian prisoners and stressed the fragility of high the fire that began earlier this month.

The exchange of hostages for prisoners is a key part of a High Fire Agreement aimed at ending the deadliest and Most destructive war He once fought between Israel and Hamas. Fifteen hostages and hundreds of prisoners have been released so far, and the militants still have more kidnapped dozens in their October 7, 2023 attack on the war.

Also on Thursday, Hamas confirmed The death of Mohammed DeifHead of his military wing and one of the alleged intellectual authors of the October 7 attack. Israel said six months ago that he was killed in an air attack in Gaza.

The Israelis rejoiced when the images of the liberated hostages who met with their families were live on television, and then repeated throughout the day and night. In the center of Tel Aviv, multitudes of people gathered outside the hospitals where the hostages were taken to cheer, and cry, in view of the incoming ambulances.

Previously, the masked and armed militants released three Israelis, after parading them for the first time through rebel crowds in Gaza, as well as five Thai citizens, who worked on farms in southern Israel when the most deadly attack took place in The history of the country.

Archive – A mural of Israeli soldiers who were kidnapped and brought to Gaza is exhibited in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, January 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, Archive)

Photo: Associated Press/Ariel Schalit

There was a cheerful house with different joy on the other side of the division. Dozens of Palestinians crowded the buses that transported prisoners released to the city of Ramallah of Bank. Some offered flower crowns in the colors of the Palestinian flag and warm jackets to cover men raised on the shoulders of supporters.

Shortly before, the Palestinians threw stones outside the prison and Israeli forces fired tear gas in an effort to clear the area.

Caos scenes like hostages are thrown

The release of prisoners occurred hours after the militants in Gaza retained thousands of bustling Palestinian spectators while delivered hostages to the Red Cross.

Hamas launched seven of the hostages against the destroyed home of Its murdered leader, Yahya SinwarAs the crowds pressed. The militant group described it as a “message of determination”, but almost derail the third exchange of hostages of this month for prisoners and caused the last of a series of disputes that have tried the durability of 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, in a delivery of the other seven in the southern city of Khan Younis, hundreds of militants of Hamas and the smallest Islamic jihad group arrived with a convoy.

The images showed Arbel Yehoud, 29, seemed stunned when the masked militants pushed her through the crowd screaming, pushing people back. Gadi Moses, an 80 -year -old man and the five Thai workers were also published. Both Yehoud and Moses are two German-Israeli citizens.

The scenes of the hostages that left through apparently hostile crowds in Gaza were disconcerting for the Israelis, who became indirect participants in the tests of hostages. Netanyahu condemned the “shocking scenes” and asked international mediators to guarantee the safety of hostages in future liberations, a commitment that said he later received.

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.

Yehoud had been at the center of a dispute earlier this week on the sequence in which hostages would be launched. The mediators of the United States, Egypt and Qatar resolved it with an agreement that Yehoud would be released with others on Thursday.

Some 20 of his friends gathered in South Israel saw how the tense scene was held on live television. They cried after Yehoud was delivered to the Red Cross.

Moses seemed stunned when he was directed by Israeli soldiers to meet with his family. The images released by the Israeli army showed their relatives broken into the room to hug him. His daughter repeatedly exclaimed: “My father, my father!”

Prisoners released in the West Bank to multitudes of supporters

Among the Palestinian prisoners who were released, 30 were fulfilling life imprisonment for mortal attacks against the Israelis; Seven were allowed to return to occupied West Bank, but the rest were transferred to Egypt before a greater deportation.

The Palestinians see the prisoners released as heroes who have sacrificed for the cause of ending the occupation of Israel’s land that they want for a future state.

As the Red Cross buses approached, the families of the Palestinian prisoners captured their first glimpses of their loved ones through the windshield, some destroyed in the body combat of the launch of stone and tear gas.

Zakaria Zubeidi – An outstanding former militant leader and theater director Who participated in a dramatic Jailbreak in 2021 before being restructured days later, was radiant, wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh and surrounded by whistled and chewing crowds. He cried as he pulled his relatives to hug.

“The treatment in prison was hard, but these masses of people made us forget the suffering of 22 years,” said Ali Farajallah, who was released after 22 years after bars for his role in attacks against Israelis.

The rights groups have described a hard treatment in Israeli prisons since the Israel-May war began.

Hamas confirms the death of a leader for a long time

Arab television networks cut live broadcasts from the release of Palestinian prisoners to bring a press conference in Hamas celebration to confirm the death of DEIF and four other members.

Confirmation tried, at least symbolically, a powerful blow to the militant group, particularly because the elusive Deif was considered iconic among Hamas fighters to survive multiple murder attempts.

Israel had previously announced each of the five deaths confirmed on Thursday.

Hamas confirmation occurs when the group reaffirms as Gaza’s dominant political force despite the declared objective of the Israeli army to destroy and discourage it. Earlier this week, Hamas militants welcomed the Palestinians who returned home in northern Gaza.

The high fire remains for now, but the next phase will be more difficult

A total of 33 hostages will be released from Gaza in the first phase of six weeks of Alto El Fuego, including women, children, older adults and sick or injured men. Almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners will be released in return. Israel says that Hamas has confirmed that eight of the hostages that will be released in this phase are dead.

Israeli forces have retired from most of Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of people return to what is left of their homes and humanitarian groups to increase assistance.

The agreement demands that Israel and Hamas negotiate a Second phase in which Hamas would free 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 rule over Gaza A few hours after 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.

Tens of thousands killed

In the October 7 attack that the war began, the militants led by Hamas killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in the following air and land war of Israel, 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. Kake Hamas civil deaths because their combatants operate in dense residential neighborhoods and put military infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.

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Shurafa reported from Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip and Debre de Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Joseph Krauss in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

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