Hamas released a group of 10 hostages, four Thai nationals and two Israeli-Russian dual citizens, and an elderly Palestinian captive
Hamas freed a group of 10 Israeli hostages, four Thai nationals and two Israeli-Russian dual citizens on Wednesday, the sixth such release of hostages since a cease-fire began on Friday.
So far, all the prisoners released have been women or minors, and many who were detained on allegations they threw rocks or Molotov cocktails at troops. Human rights groups have criticized Israel’s frequent detention of minors — often hundreds each year — and its process for holding people in detention for months or more without charges.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 13,300 people in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Hospitals don’t have electricity. There is a shortage of food, water and fuel. According to the U. UN, about 75% of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been internally displaced.
The Haaretz newspaper quoted an army spokesman as saying that on the day of the attack a lot of Israel’s soldiers were seized. The Israeli military has not specified how many soldiers were captured.
The Israelis have reported losing weight during their seven weeks in captivity and say they’ve survived mostly on bread and rice, sleeping on rows of chairs. Many were kept in underground chambers.
On Sunday, a 4-year-old girl, Abigail Mor Edan, a dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, was among those set free. U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the Biden administration believes eight or nine more Americans are still being held but the U.S. does not have “solid information on each and every one of them.”
An elderly captive from Israel was flown by helicopter from Gaza to an Israeli hospital in dire need of surgery, according to reports.
In 2007, the journalist was held for nearly four months by the Army of Islam before Hamas helped to release him, he said in a statement at the time.
Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor of Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and he spoke about it on Morning Edition. Hamas was asking for a lot more.
Hamas in the Gaza Strip: Are they going to cooperate? An Israeli official tells NPR that extending the pause is possible
Harel Chorev is a researcher at the Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern and African Studies and he says that most of the people released so far are lone wolves.
Going forward, Cherov says, Hamas is likely to want the release of higher-profile prisoners and Israel is going to want higher-value hostages returned in exchange.
Earlier, a U.S. official told NPR that CIA Director William Burns was in Doha for meetings with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and David Barnea, the chief of Mossad, Israel’s spy agency. As long as more hostages are freed, Israel will address the possibility of further extending the pauses, according to an Israeli official who spoke to NPR.
The meeting in the Persian Gulf nation of Doha is a key broker, and it is mainly focused on securing the release of more hostages as well as expanding the pause in fighting.
Meanwhile, Hamas told mediators that they approve of extending the truce for four days, Israeli media reported. The Israeli media said that a longer cease-fire could be in the works to get the release of all the hostages and a large number of prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says it believes that 161 of the original 240 hostages seized by Hamas in last month’s attack on Israeli communities are still being held by the Islamist militant group. Hamas fighters swept out of the Gaza Strip and struck nearby Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people.
The families ofIsraeli hostages freed by Hamas continue to share their stories with the media. Heiman said his mother didn’t get the necessary medical treatment during her time in Gaza.
The UN Secretary-General’s High-Energy War on the Gaza Strip, and Israel bulldozed their family home
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, air strikes, shelling, and ground clashes have largely ceased since the temporary truce went into effect on Friday.
The pause has allowed Egypt and the Palestinian Red Crescent Societies and U.N. agencies “to enhance the delivery of assistance into and across Gaza.” The UN said a convoy of Red Crescent aid reached areas north of an informal dividing line in Gaza. Israel’s military, which has focused its military campaign on the north, has warned Gazans to move south of the line.
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for “a full humanitarian ceasefire, for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and the wider region.”
Ms. Tamimi was transferred to a prison in Israel in violation of international law after she was beaten during her arrest, according to her lawyer.
She was going to come back after the death of 17,000 people. You comprehend? Nariman Tamimi said. “My daughter would return to my lap, but there are a thousand mothers who have lost their children and a thousand families that have perished.”
The couple’s sons have also spent years in Israeli detention, and one, Saleh al-Barghouti, was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces in 2018 after he was accused of opening fire on Israeli settlers. Wafa, the Palestinian Authority news agency, said that Israel bulldozed their family home in 2019.
Telling Gali Tarshansky, 13, that she was kidnapped and killed by a group of young girls in Israel
Ms. Ben-Ami has had the disease for 13 years. Family members said that while the condition is painful, she has not complained and has maintained a positive attitude. She is an amateur artist, and enjoys beading, macramé and making jewelry. She recently started volunteering to do arts and crafts with older adults on the kibbutz.
Her medication suppresses the immune system, making her susceptible to infections, and her physicians said that they feared she would not survive in captivity for long.
When she was taken hostage, Ms. Ben-Ami was being treated for neurosarcoidosis, a serious and rare disease that affects the brain, spinal cord or peripheral nerves, and has caused lesions to develop in her brain and spine.
Gali Tarshansky, 13, was kidnapped alone on Oct. 7 from her home in Be’eri, a kibbutz near the Gazan border. Her brother Lior, 16, who was hiding with her, was murdered, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
According to a report, Hila told her family that she had been with her mother for most of the time they were in captivity, and that they had only been separated a few days before her release.
Hamas terrorists killed over 1,100 people and took more than 200 hostage when they invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2004, at a music festival, attended by Itay and Maya. The siblings were captured and held captive in Gaza after trying to escape.
Ms. Tarshansky is an animal lover, as she is a volleyball player on the Hapoel Ashkelon team. She enjoys dancing, music, and movies.
The What We Know About the Hostages Released on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2009: The Case of Yibbutz Be’eri, Israel
Her mother, Reuma, voiced her concern over her daughter’s safety at an event in Tel Aviv, Reuters reported, where other relatives of women and young girls held hostage urged women’s rights groups to push for the release of their loved ones.
She said that she was waiting for her daughter Reuma to say that Gil is coming back. I can breathe a sigh of relief when I know it is over.
Yarden Roman Gat, a physiotherapist who lived on Kibbutz Be’eri, was forced into a car commandeered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, along with her husband, Alon, and 3-year-old daughter, Gefen, according to an account in The Times of Israel.
According to The Times of Israel account, Ms Gat was captured but her husband and daughter managed to evade the terrorists by hiding in bushes, taking cover for 12 hours.
Liat, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, is a mother of three adult children and an educator, who also works as a tour guide for youth groups at Yad Vashem, the holocaust remembrance center in Jerusalem. She has traveled extensively in India, and enjoys nature and wildlife. Her husband remains in captivity.
Moran Stela Yanai, a self-employed artist and jewelry designer from Be’er Sheva, had gone to the Nova music festival in Re’im to sell her handmade jewelry, according to the hostages and missing families forum.
Source: Here’s What We Know About the Hostages Released on Wednesday
The Or Family of Dror and Yuval, a GASP Scout in Tel Aviv, was Taken hostage by Hamas
Ms. Yanai contacted her family while trying to escape by car with a friend after the attack started. Friends who survived toldMs.Yanai’s relatives that the group encountered another gang of terrorists after the telephone call. Her friends fled in different directions and lost touch with her.
Liam Or was taken hostage by his uncle, a kindergarten teacher in Kibbutz Be’eri. He is a chess champion and an ardent supporter of the Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer team.
Dror Or and his family were taken captive at the same time. Noam and Alma were released on Saturday. The Or family thinks Dror is in Gaza.
Ofir was visiting his girlfriend, Yuval and was kidnapped by Hamas at the end of October.
The safe room of the house was searched by Hamas terrorists after noon on October 7.
“I said, ‘Don’t! Don’t! They have guns, but only our hands. They are going to shoot you! Ms. Shani recalled. The gunmen ordered Ms. Shani, Amit and his two younger sisters to march down a road. Amit and two Israeli men from another house were ordered into a car, Ms. Shani said.
“I was begging, crying, and asking for him to leave me alone, so that I could take him, and so that I could grieve,” she said. One of the kidnappers, she said, raised his gun toward her. She and her two younger daughters were left behind and were rescued by Israeli soldiers later that night. The army later confirmed that Amit had been kidnapped.