200 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip from the Rafah crossing on the first day of the truce

Officials said that Israel has received a list of the names of hostages who are scheduled to be released by Hamas in Gaza today (Saturday), after the release of 24 hostages on the first day of the scheduled four-day truce yesterday (Friday), according to Reuters.

A statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government promised to work to release all hostages taken by Hamas in an attack on Israel on October 7, said that Israeli security officials are reviewing the list.

This truce is the first stop in the war that broke out seven weeks ago, but both sides said that they would resume hostilities immediately after the end of the truce, but US President Joe Biden expressed his hope that it would be extended.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the released hostages, including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers, were transferred out of Gaza and handed over to the Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, accompanied by eight Red Cross employees in a four-car convoy. They were then transferred to Israel to undergo medical examinations and be reunited with their relatives.

Qatar, which played the role of mediator in the truce agreement, said that 13 Israelis, some of them holding other nationalities, had been released, in addition to ten Thais and a Filipino farmworkers who were working in southern Israel when they were taken hostage. In return, thirty-nine Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons were released.

Among the Israeli hostages who were freed were four children, accompanied by four members of their families, and five elderly women.

In Washington, Biden said that there is a real opportunity to extend the truce and that stopping the fighting represents a crucial opportunity to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

He refused to predict how long the war between Israel and Hamas would last. When asked in a press conference about his expectations, he said that Israel’s goal of eliminating Hamas is legitimate but difficult. He added: “I don’t know how long it will take.”

On the other hand, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that 196 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, including food, water and medical supplies, were delivered through the Rafah crossing yesterday (Friday), which is the largest aid convoy to Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli bombing of the Strip. In response. She added that about 1,759 trucks have entered the Strip since October 21.

On the Palestinian side, 24 Palestinian female prisoners and 15 minors were released. Witnesses said that in at least three cases, before the prisoners were released, Israeli police raided their family homes in Jerusalem. The police declined to comment.

Sawsan Bakir, the mother of Palestinian prisoner Marah Bakir (24 years old), who was imprisoned for eight years after being convicted of carrying out a knife attack in 2015, said, “There is no joy at all.”

The Israeli police were seen raiding Sawsan’s house in Jerusalem before Marah was released. Sawsan added, “We are afraid to be happy and wait, and we are afraid to be happy and unable to be happy because of the situation in Gaza.”