It was cold on Wednesday night when innocent Abu Sahloul, 39, eagerly awaited news of his son Muhammad. The 17-year-old has disappeared since the beginning of last year, and Abu Sahloul was afraid of the worst-to die in the midst of an angry war in Gaza.
As she slowly moved through the crowd, she and her sister, Nidaa Abu Sahloul, stayed nearby trying to find anyone who could have information.
Hundreds of people were at a European Hospital in South Gaza, waiting to see if their loved ones would be among the 620 Palestinians released in the last exchange of hostages and prisoners who agreed in the first phase of the trial between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
“The feeling is indescribable when we discovered that he was alive. Described,” Abu Sahloul told CBC News Freelance Videographers Mohamed El Saife. “I couldn’t imagine Muhammad alive and now he was released.”
The latest exchange denotes the end of the first phase of the trial agreement in which 33 Israeli hostages were released, including eight bodies, for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
On Thursday Israel sent Negotiators to meet in Cairo to discuss the expansion of the initial phase. In the answer on Friday, Hamas “confirmed his complete commitment to the implementation of all the terms of the agreement in all his stages and details” in the post on Telegram Service for messaging.
Waiting for a son’s edition takes a tribute
The fire interruption agreement was reached after more than 15 months of war, which began with an attack by a Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelites were killed and led to the hostage of about 250 people in Gaza, according to Israeli Salima. The Israeli later military offensive killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Muhammad was supposed to be released with more than 40 other juveniles on February 2nd, but Israel delayed him, who complained that the way Hamas was leaving hostages. “degrading. “
The consent of the fire began on January 19, and during the last few weeks of Israel, the hostages were shown on the stages set in various quarters in the Gaza belt and made it to wave the crowds of people before handing it over to the Red Cross officers.
When El Saife spoke with Abu Sahloul, his mother had just begun what would be overnight in the hospital without success.
On Wednesday at about 5 o’clock on Wednesday, she was told that the bus was driving a son and other detainees would not arrive by noon. Tired and overwhelmed, she crashed to her knees as her sister tried to comfort her.
A few hours later, led by the Red Cross Jeipova convoy, he attracted the bus to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. From afar passengers looked identical, with shaved heads and wearing gray sweat.
Muhammad Abu Sahloul, 17, is one of the hundreds of Palestinians who will be released in the last exchange of hostages and prisoners as part of an agreement on the trial between Israel and Hamas.
Some hung from open windows and waved a crowd that gathered nearby, while some detainees were in tears.
Muhammad’s aunt, Nida, was the one who first saw him on the bus. She waited with Abu Sahloul the night before to see if his name would appear on the list that would be published.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw him on the bus,” she said.
‘It’s an indescribable feeling’
The published detainees receive a medical examination in the hospital and change their clothes before they can reunite with their families. But before Muhammad, still in his gray sweat, could go to the hospital, he and his mother found themselves and hugged.
They have been waiting for 13 months to this moment, losing hope many times that this will ever happen. Muhammad was breathless and tears as his family surrounded him with the eagerness he waited for their turn to hug him.
“It’s an indescribable feeling. God willing to every mother of a detainee feels the happiness I have seen,” said Abu Sahloul.
The teenager told El Saife that he was arrested on January 24, 2024 and spent 420 days in custody, where he said he was beaten and current – the “worst treatment” he had ever seen in his life. Muhammad said his family did not provide information when he was detained. His mother contacted organizations that would know that he was detained, but she always returned empty handed.
In the end, Muhammad said, he lost hope that he would ever see his family again.
“I didn’t expect it to come one day when I saw the sky without bars,” he said.
