Israeli forces fire on a car in southern Lebanon

Israel announced that the Hamas movement will release today (Saturday) 13 hostages it has been holding since its attack on the Hebrew state last month, and that 39 Palestinians will be released from Israeli prisons, on the second day of the truce that began seven weeks after a devastating war that left thousands dead. According to Agence France-Presse.

The Israeli prison authorities stated that 39 Palestinian detainees, male and female, would be released, while an Israeli government official said that Hamas would release 13 hostages.

Yesterday (Friday), the first day of the truce witnessed Hamas releasing 13 Israeli women and children hostages, in exchange for Israel releasing 39 Palestinian detainees, including women and minors. Hamas also released ten Thais and one Filipino who were among the hostages held in Gaza, outside the basic agreement.

Qatar mediated mainly alongside Egypt and the United States to reach the truce agreement, which will last four days and can be extended. The agreement stipulated the cessation of military actions in the Gaza Strip and the exchange of 50 hostages held in Gaza and 150 detainees in Israeli prisons.

The first 24 hostages released by Hamas arrived on Friday night to Israel via Egypt.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, published a two-minute video, in which armed fighters appeared handing over a number of hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In the West Bank, a crowd of Palestinians gathered in the town of Beitunia to receive a number of released prisoners.

In Israel, authorities have asked the media not to communicate with the released hostages and their families and to respect their privacy at this time.

US President Joe Biden promised on Friday that Hamas’s release of the first group of hostages is “only the beginning,” stressing that there are “real opportunities” to extend the four-day truce.

The Israeli army estimates that there are 215 hostages still in Gaza, according to spokesman Doron Spielman, who added: “In many cases we do not know whether they are alive or dead.”

The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on Saturday that there were still 20 Thai citizens detained, expressing its hope that they would be “treated humanely and released as soon as possible without being harmed.”

The truce brings some calm to the population of Gaza, which numbers about 2.4 million people, after violent Israeli bombing since October 7.

On that day, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on the Hebrew state, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to the Israeli authorities. Hamas and other Palestinian factions took with them hostages estimated at 240.

According to the Hamas government, 14,854 people have been killed in the besieged Gaza Strip since the start of the war, including 6,150 children.

Bahja in the West Bank

In the West Bank, signs of joy accompanied the return of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel, especially in Beitunia and the Nablus refugee camp.

Large crowds received Palestinian prisoners when they landed in Beitunia, and many of them chanted: “God is great.” Firecrackers were set off, lighting up the sky.

The participants raised a number of the released detainees on their shoulders and waved the flags of Palestine and the flags of the Hamas and Fatah movements.

In East Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, the Israeli authorities have banned any celebration.

Marah Bakir (24 years old), who was imprisoned for eight years after she was convicted of trying to stab an Israeli security officer, said: “I am happy, but my liberation came at the price of the blood of the martyrs.”

She added: “Freedom is wonderful away from the four walls of prison… I did not know anything about my family, and the prison administration was creative with its punishments against us.”

The truce appears to be holding on its second day.

On Friday, tens of thousands of displaced people tried, since the early hours of dawn, to leave the schools and hospitals where they had taken shelter to return to their homes in the eastern border areas of Khan Yunis, Rafah, Al-Bureij, Al-Maghazi, and Deir Al-Balah, which they left weeks ago.

The army dropped leaflets warning that “the war is not over” and that “returning to the north is forbidden and very dangerous.”

Despite this warning, thousands of Palestinians tried to return to northern Gaza on Friday, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The office said that at least one person was killed and dozens were injured in incidents with Israeli forces, which opened fire and threw tear gas at Palestinians heading north.

More than half of the housing stock in the Gaza Strip was damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations. 1.7 million people were displaced out of 2.4 million in Gaza.

A new batch of aid is supposed to enter the Gaza Strip on Saturday, an item also included in the agreement.

Israel imposed a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip, which has already been subject to a siege since Hamas came to power in 2007, and cut off its supplies of water, food, electricity, medicine, and fuel.

On Friday, 200 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza, according to the Civil Affairs Coordination Unit of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. OCHA said that this is “the largest humanitarian convoy” since the beginning of the war.