Hamas releases second group of Israeli and Thai hostages in ceasefire agreement

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Thirteen Israelis and four Thai nationals arrived in Israel on Sunday in the second release of hostages from Hamas captivity in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. This deal was briefly endangered by a dispute about aid delivery into Gaza. Nonetheless, the mediation of Egypt and Qatar saw this dispute resolved, underscoring the frailty of the pact to convert 50 hostages held by the Palestinian militant group for 150 prisoners in Israeli jails.

The television showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after their departure from Gaza. Hamas handed the captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross late on Saturday.

In the released hostages group, six were women and seven were teenagers or children, with the youngest being Yahel Shoham aged three years old. Though accompanied by her mother and brother, her father remains in captivity.

The released group are on their way to hospitals in Israel, where they will re-unite with their families,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Israel released 39 Palestinians – six women and 33 minors – from two prisons, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.

Some of the Palestinians arrived at Al-Bireh Municipality Square in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where thousands of citizens awaited them, a Reuters witness said.

A Palestinian official familiar with the diplomatic moves said Hamas would continue the truce, the first halt in fighting since Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.

In response to that attack, Israel has vowed to destroy the Hamas militants who run Gaza, raining bombs and shells on the enclave and launching a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 people, roughly 40% of them children, have been killed, Palestinian health authorities said on Saturday.

Saturday’s swap follows the previous day’s initial release of 13 Israeli hostages, including children and the elderly, by Hamas in return for the release of 39 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli prisons.

The four Thais freed on Saturday “want a shower and to contact their relatives”, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on social media platform X, adding that all were safe and showed few ill-effects. Eighteen Thais remain captive, Thailand’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, in a tally reflecting two abductions that had previously been unknown.

“I’m so happy, I’m so glad, I can’t describe my feeling at all,” Thongkoon Onkaew told Reuters by telephone, after news of the release of her son Natthaporn, 26, the family’s sole breadwinner.

The deal risked derailing when Hamas’ armed wing said on Saturday it was delaying releases until Israel met all truce conditions, including committing to let aid trucks into northern Gaza.

Saving the deal took a day of high-stakes diplomacy mediated by Qatar and Egypt, a process U.S. President Joe Biden joined, calling Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said there had been “a lot of discussion” on how and whom to prioritise for release and that a key criterion for the Palestinian side was the length of time spent in Israeli prisons.

We are now hopeful that, with the second or the third day of this pause, we would be able to hash out a lot of these details,” he told CNN.

Israel has said the ceasefire could be extended if Hamas continued to release at least 10 hostages a day. A Palestinian source has said up to 100 hostages could go free.

Also released was nine-year-old Irish-Israeli hostage Emily Hand, initially feared killed, but who spent her ninth birthday in captivity before being freed along with 12-year-old Hila Rotem, whose mother remains in captivity.

Palestinians’ joy at the release was tinged with bitterness.