The fragile ceasefire that Israel and Hamas have been maintaining for six days is still holding. On Friday, the terrorist group, which has been designated by the U.S. and Israel, released the names of the four Israeli hostages they plan to release on Saturday in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners currently being held in Israeli jails. Hamas has named four female Israeli soldiers as hostages, which is in line with the statement made by a Hamas representative earlier this week.
In a short statement, the office of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the list of Hamas hostages was received on Friday. However, it did not confirm immediately the identities of female soldiers who are expected to return home on Saturday.
There are currently seven Israeli women still thought to be held in Gaza, including five IDF service members and two civilians. One of the civilians is Arbel Yehoud, who was abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz and whose last chilling message to her partner Ariel Cunio, who escaped, was: “We are in a horror movie.”
Shiri was also taken along with her children Ariel, and Kfir. Hamas claims that Shiri Bibas, Ariel Bibas, and Kfir were killed by an Israeli bombing. Benny Gantz, the then-Israeli minister, said in a June TV interview that the government was aware of what happened to the family Bibas, but could not give details.
Hamas officials have said that Israel must release 30 prisoners with life sentences for every Israeli woman soldier it releases.
Netanyahu’s office announced that it would release the list of Palestinians it plans to free as part of the next swap on Friday. The majority of these prisoners are likely to be female, just as they were for the 90 or so Palestinians who were released in the first exchange on Jan. 19 hours after the ceasefire agreement came into force.
Images broadcast worldwide showed the release by Hamas of three Israeli women and one dual British citizen a week earlier. Red Cross vehicles first drove toward Gaza City just before sunset as a sign the deal was moving forward. In one of Gaza City’s largest squares, the Hamas car door opened, and Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher bolted into a Red Cross vehicle as heavily armed Hamas militants and masked Hamas fighters scrambled over the cars.
According to Israeli officials if the next four Israelis were released on Saturday as expected, 89 hostages, both alive and dead, would still be in Gaza. This includes seven dual U.S. citizens: Keith Siegel 65, from Chapel Hill North Carolina, Sagui Dekel Chen 35, who was raised in Bloomfield Connecticut, and Edan Alexander 19, from Tenafly New Jersey.
During the 15-month war, four other Americans may have died.
Gaza ceasefire test but still holding
The Gaza ceasefire was tested this week by isolated incidents of violence, but it has held.
Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli tank shelling on Thursday, the first deaths since Sunday morning’s airstrikes. Israel’s military claimed that its forces in Gaza’s south opened fire at armed masked suspects who were moving towards troops and posing a threat. IDF stated that the incident took place east of Rafah in southern Gaza, near the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel where aid trucks deliver food, water, and medical supplies.
According to the U.N., more than 600 trucks containing food and other humanitarian aid rolled into Gaza Thursday. This is slightly above the 600 trucks per day agreed upon in the ceasefire agreement.
As agreed, the Gazans who have fled their homes are eagerly awaiting the weekend to begin returning to the decimated northern part of the enclave. Those who have returned to their homes or what’s left of them in the south already know what they are facing.
The returnees found their entire neighborhood reduced to rubble. Even without the heavy machinery they needed, they began the work of reconstruction and the grim task, of finding and digging up the remains of their loved ones. Nearly 200 bodies have been discovered since Sunday. However, the Hamas-run Hamas enclave’s civil defense rescue agency estimates there are more than 10,000 bodies still hidden under the rubble.
Mohammed Mustafa Hamad Qeshta, a resident of Rafah in Gaza, said on Wednesday that a strike by the IDF had killed his brother Ibrahim two years earlier.
He cried, “We got him out today with the broom.” The entire house fell and hit him. We called the civil defense to ask for help in recovering his body. We kept hearing that they would do it but the process was delayed. We wanted to remove his body. We decided to dig the hole ourselves and remove him. We agreed to meet here after the early morning prayer. We found his sweater after we had dug and moved many stones. “I found his green jacket and called his family to let them know we had found him.”
Sameera Masoud al-Shaer, Ibrahim’s mother, said that she was happy to have at least closure.
She said, “I’m happy and these tears are tears of joy.” “I’m glad I found him. It’s the best moment. I waited for the ceasefire to see him. This is my best moment. “Thank God the wall fell and we found the whole body. It wasn’t eaten up by dogs.”
The ceasefire has been maintained in Gaza, but the IDF has focused its attention and increased its firepower on what they say are militants supported by Iran in the West Bank – the larger Palestinian territory Israel has long controlled.
The IDF launched the operation “Iron Wall”, on Tuesday, one day after President Trump reversed an executive order from Biden’s time that had imposed restrictions on certain Israeli settlers who were considered a threat to security and peace in the West Bank.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured since the IDF offensive started.
The United Nations condemned Israel on Friday for using “warfighting” methods to fight in the West Bank.
