Israel and Hamas exchanged a new group of hostages and prisoners on Thursday in a handover that switched to chaos while armed militants fought for singing control, glowing a crowd of Palestinians trying to catch an insight into the Israelis who were captured during the 15 months of war.
Hamas has published a total of eight Israeli and Thai hostage In the gaza belt, including a firmly choreographed handover, the Israeli soldier, Agam Berger, 20, in the northern town of Jabaliya.
But the noise of the release of two other Israeli hostages – Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Moses, 80, in the city of Khan Younis – was angry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. This led to his office to announce that he suspended the release of more than 100 Palestinian captives, which was requested under the certificate of Katar, Egypt and the United States.
The episode briefly led the doubt whether the prisoner’s edition would happen at all.
Mr. Netanyahu blown the “shocking scene” crowds shouting and jerking to get closer to the terrible Mrs. Yehud and the gloomy Mr. Moses. “This is additional evidence of the unimaginable brutality of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the Prime Minister said.
He urged international intermediaries to provide guarantees from Hamas for “the safe exit of our hostages in the following rounds”. The Israeli government later relented, releasing closed Palestinians, saying that the mediators promised a safe passage for hostages in future exchanges.
In a statement, Hamas said that the response of the hustle and bustle of hostages showed that the Palestinians were determined to stay on their land. The Israelis chaos illustrated Hamas’s desire to humiliate and torture hostages, even when they were released.
In the previous handover, the militants took hostage to cheerful, sometimes nibbling on the crowds before transferring them to the Red Cross officers, who then handed them to Israeli officials.
Near Three Israeli hostagesOn Thursday, Hamas liberated five Thai agricultural workers who were among those who were abducted when the militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. They were Pongsak Thanna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaun, Bannawat Seatao and Surazak LaMnao. The fate of one remaining Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, remained unclear.
The exchange has arrived during the first phase of temporary forced fire for 42 days, and Israel and Hamas still have to negotiate the next one.
Before hostages were released in Khan Younis on Thursday, a large number of Palestinians gathered near the Yahya Sinci house, a Hamas leader in Gaza killed by Israel in October. A small white van wearing prisoners and surrounded by armed armed with slowly pushed the passage through the shout.
Photos and videos show Mrs. Yehud, one of the last living women who take place in Gaza, walking cautiously through the crowds as they are surrounded by rifle militants from Hamas and Islamic jihad as they headed for the Red Cross convoy. The Red Cross handed over to Mrs. Yehud to Israeli soldiers.
The third -liberated Israeli hostage, Mr. Moses, was also forced to break through the tight crowd of spectators.
Yves Daccord, a former Red Cross Director General, said the handover at Khan Younis are “risky”, “unacceptable” and “absolute psychological torture”.
“The release of hostages in this way creates a huge trauma on top of everything that has already happened,” he said in an interview. Ideally, he said, hostages should be fired from the crowd and the camera.
After releasing freedom, Mrs. Yehud was taken to Sheba hospital in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv. In Israel, they met with crowds, but they were welcomed. “Our life mission to bring us back Arbel has succeeded,” her family said in a statement.
Mrs Yehud was 28 years old when she was took a hostage Together with your boyfriend,, Ariel Cunio, from their house in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. It is believed that the Mr. Conio was still trapped in Gaza. The brother of Mrs. Yehud was identified, Dolev Yehud, a doctor, last year as killed during the attack guided by Hamas.
In a statement published by the Family Families Forum, an umbrella organization, Mrs. Yehud called Israeli officials to reach an agreement on the interruption of fire until everyone was released. “Everyone has to go home immediately so we can cure as a society,” it said.
Mrs. Berger, the soldier returned home from the northern Gaza, was in a “good” condition, according to Dr. Eytan Wirtheim, the executive director of the Beilinson Hospital, where she was taken.
She was 19 years old and served as a lookout at Nahal Oz’s military base near the border with Gaza when the militants under the leadership of Hamas broke through the facility, killing more than 50 soldiers and the abduction of her and six other soldiers. Four were Published in exchange Saturday.
These four soldiers “improve themselves day by day” at the hospital, said Dr. Wirtreim in a television statement. He said they decided to stay in the hospital to keep Mrs. Berger Company during their first days of freedom.
Mr. Moses, an expert on agriculture, was 79 years old when he was abducted in Kibbutz Nir Oz after attempting Reason with militants who marauded.
His partner, Ephrat Katz, hid in a safe room in their house with his daughter and two guest grandchildren, until they were taken. Their abduction is trapped on Video This has shown them connected in the back of the pikap.
Mrs. Katz was killed when an Israeli helicopter who responded to the attack was fired at the vehicle. Her daughter and grandchildren were released in November 2023.
The liberated Thai men passed the initial medical examination Thursday and it was found that they were in a “good” condition, said the spokesman of the Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar.
Vilas Thanna, the father of Mr. Pongsak, who worked on the fruit farm, could barely draw words as he digested the news of his son’s freedom “When we are happy, we cry,” he said. “When we’re sad, we cry too. But these are happy tears.”
Economic difficulties have been encouraged by thousands of Thais, especially from the Isaan region of northeast Thailand, to take over agricultural affairs in Israel. The Thai agricultural hand that worked in Israel suffered a strong toll in attacks by Hamas 2023. At least 39 was killed and at least 31 took hostages, according to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Twenty -three of them were released in November 2023. They died in captivity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last May.
Hamas has committed to release at least 33 hostages in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners during the first phase of interruption. On Thursday, Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners, including 32 maintenance of a life penalty for deadly attacks on the Israelis.
Before the issue, Palestinians stood in front of the Government’s Recreation Center in the western coast of Ramallah on Thursday, checking her phones at the prisoner update restlessly.
Samar Faisal stood in a crunchy winter air, trembling as much as the excitement as the cold. She was in disbelief, she said. After more than 20 years in Israeli prison, her brother was released.
“I’m worried and I pray that I finally see him,” Mrs. Faisal said, as volunteers in fluorescent vests moved through the crowd.
For some waiting outside the recreation center, the anticipation was mitigated by sadness.
Alaa Zubeidi was dressed in black in memory of her eldest son Mohammed, who she said was killed in September by Israeli strike of drones in their hometown of Jenin. Now she was waiting for her husband’s release, Zakariya Zubeidiwho has been a militant, a theater director and fled the prisoner in the last two decades. Israeli forces returned to him again in 2019.
Finally, around 7 pm a bus chain arrived, which transported dozens of former Palestinian prisoners. Sixty -seven arrived at Ramallah on Thursday, including 27 children, officials said. An additional 14 Palestinians arrived in Jerusalem and nine in Gaza, while 20 were sent to Egypt.
In Beitunia, on the west coast on the West Coast, while the Red Cross buses that carried the liberated Palestinian prisoners arrived, Palestinians threw stones at the Israeli forces, who fired stunned grenades in response, shots shown live on Arab television networks. It was unclear if there were victims.
Exchange was the third replacement in the first phase in the 42-day trial that stopped the fight between Hamas and Israel. Hamas is expected to release three more men hostage on Saturday in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners.
All in all, about 250 people were abducted from Israel during the 2023 attack and about 1,200 killed, the Israelis said. Israel responded by release of air attacks through Gaza. The devastation displaced millions of Palestinians and led to death more than 47,000, according to the health officers of Gazan, whose figures do not distinguish civilians and fighters.
On Thursday, months after Israel announced that he had killed the leader of Hamas’s military wing, Muhammad Deif, in an air attack, confirmed his death in a video statement.
Reporting contributed Isabel Kershner,, Avishag Shaar-Yashuv,, Liam Sweet and Fatima Abdulkarim.
