Within the surgery to bring in Israel’s hostages home from Gaza

Begins with a phone call with location.

Once the details are obtained, a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) starts in vehicles marked by the charity of the humanitarian organization to pick up hostages in Gaza.

Israeli military and medical staff also gather in several different locations, waiting for them to bring them home.

The revelation with hostages, observed around the world, came after months of tense negotiations aimed at ending the war that began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people in Israel and abducted 251 others.

In the 15 months that followed, more than 47,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, according to the HAMAS Ministry of Health, and many more lost their homes in Israeli bombers.

According to the terms of agreement on the termination of fire between Israel and Hamas, which began on January 19, a total of 33 Israeli hostages should be released and returned to their families during the first phase, for six weeks.

In exchange, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are released.

If anything goes wrong, he risks hostages to captivity and re -rule the war.

“This is more than just a drive,” says ICRC spokeswoman Sarah Davies.

“These operations may seem simple, but are in fact very complex and require strict security measures to reduce the risks for those involved.”

ICRC, which acts as a neutral intermediary in handover, composes a team of experts, some of whom have been involved in similar operations in the past – although it is more challenging than most.

There are some details that the group cannot speak publicly because of concern that it could endanger the safety of surgery.

Mrs. Davies says planning is crucial to ensuring that the exchange is smoothly flowing. They were mapping alternative routes to reach different locations in Gaza, knowing that “the safest route can change” at any time.

Among their biggest concerns are the dangers that are an unexploded command, destroyed and damaged infrastructure and large crowds with “enhanced emotions”.

“Our teams are preparing and planning as many scripts as possible,” she says.

“The most important thing for us is that we can return any person entrusted to our care back to their homes.”

But it is impossible to plan everything.

“From previous experience, here and other places around the world, we know that logistics and final details can change at any time, even – and especially – during the operations themselves,” says Ms. Davies.

Medical staff and so -called weapons pollution experts, dressed in identifying war remains of explosives, travel with teams.

During the operations, representatives of ICRC also maintain regular contact with Israeli officials and Hamas as well as mediators.

In the previous editions, Hamas circulated the names of published hostages on his telegram channels in advance, not revealing exactly where the handover would happen.

The first public signs of locations were the presence of armed and masked members of the Hamas military wing.

“I learned from the type of kiosk that something is happening at the intersection and that al-Qassam fighters have a parade,” says a local journalist about the first edition in the city of Gaza earlier this month.

The crowds began to gather to watch the fighters gather in a formation, and the word began to spread that First three posted hostage Under the dedication agreement there, he would appear there.

“When people realized that it would be a place where the Israeli hostage would hand over, people started singing [for al-Qassam and senior Hamas figures]”He says.” They started shouting “God is the greatest” – it showed how joyful they were. “

The journalist was also there because of The second edition – In second place in the city of Gaza – next week, which he describes as “organized”.

The fighters set a little stage with the table and the chairs and stood in a formation to separate the hostages from the crowd.

White cars with darkened windows were used to bring on hostages – four female soldiers – to the area.

The young women were recorded thanks to their kidnappers and were handed a gift bag in the video published by Hamas’s military wing.

They brought them to the stage and waved them to cheer, before handing over them to caring for ICRC.

Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou said in a later statement that “scenes and details” stimulated handover “tell the story of creativity, heroism of resistance and enhance the model of pride and dignity.”

Mrs. Davies says there are some aspects of handover that are “beyond our control”.

“At all times, the ICRC staff does everything to protect the dignity of those released, but … it is important that people recognize the limitations of what we can do,” she says.

“Our priority remains a safe and successful release and transfer of those in our care.”

The hostages are switched to Israeli defense forces (IDF) on the outskirts of gauze.

Col Dr. Avi Banov, Deputy Chief of the Medical Corps of Israel’s Defense Forces, says: “We are ready through the periphery of Gaza and other areas to get hostages.

“We are always preparing because Hamas does not tell us,” OK, we will free them in this area or in the area. “

The reception points are set across the border to receive them.

On the spot are military and medical staff, social workers and hostage families.

Former Israeli army doctor who was involved in the first hostage surgery during November 2023, a tribute remembers waiting for an ambulance in the base near the border. He was one of several teams in a standby in the event that one of the hostages has medical ambulance and says that there were strict instructions on interaction with those who returned.

It reminds us: “We are told if you evacuate them, do not ask them questions, do not do anything inappropriate, just be quiet, and then if hostages ask you something or want something, of course you will answer and answer and give them.

He says the atmosphere in the base was excitement and nerves. “It was a very important mission,” he says.

COL Dr. Banov says the return begins with an introduction between hostages and medical staff.

Returned hostages were assigned to a doctor, a nurse and a social worker who “follows them to the end” to them who were taken to the hospital.

The families are advised to give hostages to “some time” with medical teams before re -gathering to allow them to “breathe and understand that [they’re] In a safe place again. “

“We start with vitamins, something small to eat and drink, and then family,” says COL Dr. Banov.

As part of the “fundamental” process, he says, the efforts are made to make a hostage agency to make your own decisions, with questions such as: “Do you want to take a shower before or after you meet your parents?”

Of the first seven hostages released, he says that most had “some kind of injuries to shrapnel”, as well as suffering from testering and metabolic problems.

“They’re not good physically, mentally it’s a very complicated question,” he says.

In the coming weeks, he notes, the bodies of dead hostages will also arrive, with plans to transfer them to the forensic lab before the funeral in Israel.

After receiving initial treatment at the entrance site, survivors hostages are transferred to a “specially adapted” helicopter to the hospital elsewhere in the country.

Col Dr. Banov says, “We tell them … We’ll take a helicopter home. And then if you’re willing, we’ll start talking about what you went through.”

The proper recovery process begins there.