The news agencies AFP and Reuters report on Saturday that Hamas is delaying the release of a new pool of Israeli hostages. Hamas says it does not want to release more until Israel lets in more emergency aid to the northern part of Gaza.
According to the plan, 13 hostages were to be released on Saturday.
In a new statement, Hamas says that 340 trucks with emergency aid were allowed into Gaza on Friday. Egypt confirmed the same figure earlier on Saturday.
Hamas says that 65 of these reached the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and that this is less than half of what Israel and Hamas agreed upon. This has not yet been confirmed by independent sources, and Israel has not yet commented on the claim.
Reuters reports that Egypt is trying to mediate between the parties. They cite an unnamed official Palestinian source.
Reuters also reports that Qatar is in talks with Israel and Hamas to have the hostages released “as soon as possible”.
Waiting for instructions
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quotes a senior Hamas figure in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, as saying that “an effort is being made to resolve the problem”.
They also write that Israeli security sources express confusion over the postponement, and that the Israeli defense is waiting for further instructions from the authorities on how to proceed if Hamas breaks the agreement.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, says in a statement that Israeli forces will remain in Gaza until all the hostages are released, writes Haaretz. He also says that new negotiations with Hamas will only take place “while bombs are falling and the soldiers are fighting”.
According to Reuters, a spokesperson from Hamas says that they stand by their obligations in the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas accuses Israel of not fulfilling its obligations in the agreement. They claim that Israel violated the terms on Friday by attacking Palestinian civilians trying to cross into the northern part of Gaza. This has not been confirmed by independent sources, and Israel has not commented on the claim.
50 days since the outbreak of war
AFP reported earlier on Saturday that, according to Hamas, 14 hostages were about to be released and handed over to the Red Cross. They later write that official sources in Israel deny that they have accepted several hostages.
On Friday, 13 Israeli, one Filipino and 10 Thai hostages were released.
the hostage releases are taking place in the context of the ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which is scheduled to last until Monday.
A total of 40 hostages are to be released, at the same time that Israel is to release 150 imprisoned Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
It is Saturday 50 days since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel. So far, around 13,000 people have been killed in Gaza, while around 1,200 people were killed during Hamas’ terrorist attack against Israel on 7 October.
2023-11-25 18:17:34
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