The release of hostages from the Gaza Strip, agreed between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, has apparently been postponed. According to consistent reports in the Israeli media, this is unlikely to happen before Friday. Haaretz newspaper, N12 TV station and The Times of Israel quoted statements from Israeli security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi. Hamas had stated the day before that the agreed break in fighting should begin at 9 a.m. CET on Thursday. Accordingly, the first exchange of hostages kidnapped in Israel for Palestinian prisoners was expected on the same day. Meanwhile, according to the Israeli army, there was another rocket alert in the border area on Thursday morning.
“Discussions on the release of our hostages are progressing and will continue,” Hanegbi said on Wednesday evening. The Times of Israel quoted Hanegbi as saying: “The release will begin in accordance with the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday.” The Israeli army is preparing to implement the first phase of the agreement, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday evening. However, the repatriation of people abducted to the closed coastal strip may take some time and take place in several phases.
According to the Times of Israel, an Israeli official explained the delay by saying that, contrary to the Israeli side’s previous view, both Israel and the Islamist Hamas would first have to sign a document ratifying the agreement before it can enter into force . The document will hopefully be signed within the next 24 hours so that the first hostages can be released on Friday. The “Jerusalem Post” spoke of a “last-minute complication”.
Both sides had previously agreed to a ceasefire of up to ten days in Israel and the Gaza Strip. Part of the deal includes an exchange of up to 100 hostages from Israel for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, which has ties to Hamas and is also hostile to Israel and has been repeatedly involved in violent clashes with the Israeli army since the start of the Gaza war almost seven weeks ago, is not part of the deal , according to the “Jerusalem Post”. The incidents on the border with Lebanon, which threaten to escalate, have no influence on this. Meanwhile, Israel said it attacked pro-Iranian militia targets in Lebanon on Thursday evening.
The Israeli military reported that warplanes had attacked the Shia militia’s infrastructure. Hezbollah said at least five of its members were killed. Among them is the son of the chairman of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc in the Lebanese parliament, Mohamed Raad. As the German Press Agency learned from Lebanese security circles, they were members of Hezbollah’s elite brigade, Al Radwan. Accordingly, a house in the village of Beit Yahoun in southern Lebanon was hit.
There are concerns that the Gaza war could spread to Lebanon. Hezbollah is considered more influential and significantly more powerful than Hamas. Hezbollah is also considered Iran’s most important non-state ally and is part of the self-proclaimed ‘Axis of Resistance’, a front of militias aimed at fighting Iran’s arch-enemy Israel.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the deal with Hamas and assured the Israeli government that it would work to release all hostages. Biden discussed in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday that a ceasefire would allow urgently needed humanitarian aid to be brought to the Gaza Strip, the White House said.
The Israeli military says it has uncovered further parts of a suspected Hamas tunnel system under Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. The military released videos and images Wednesday evening showing additional entrances to tunnels, underground chambers and shelters. The Israeli army suspects that the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip is a Hamas command center.
Just a few days ago, during the controversial operation at the clinic, the military discovered a shaft that, according to the military, leads to a tunnel section, at the end of which, after 55 meters, there was an “explosion-proof” door. As the military has now announced, behind the recently broken door is an air-conditioned room, a bathroom and other shafts. According to the military, the tunnel system extends beneath the entire hospital building and other buildings in the area.
According to military spokesman Hagari, the results of the survey are evidence of Hamas’ “deliberate approach to operating under hospitals.” The clinic was specifically used as a weapons depot and Hamas command center. Hamas denies this. The information could not be independently verified.
Netanyahu had previously said the war in the Gaza Strip against Hamas would continue after the ceasefire deal was implemented. According to the Times of Israel, its Defense Minister Joav Galant said on Wednesday evening that all Hamas leaders would be killed. “The struggle is global: from the gunmen in the field to those enjoying themselves in luxury jets while their emissaries attack women and children – they are doomed to die.”
As a first step, the Israel-Hamas deal includes the exchange of 50 Israeli hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners within four days. In a second step, another 50 Israeli hostages will be exchanged for another 150 Palestinian prisoners in smaller groups. Only when the hostages are in Israel will the families be notified so as not to “raise false hopes” among the relatives of those held in the Gaza Strip who will be released, the “Jerusalem Post” wrote on Thursday.
Terrorists from Hamas and other groups carried out unprecedented massacres in southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and abducting around 240 hostages to Gaza, including Germans. Of the 240 people kidnapped, four female hostages have so far been released by Hamas. A young female soldier was released from the army. The army also found the bodies of two women. It is unclear how many in total are still alive.
It is unclear whether the agreed ceasefire will come into effect as initially expected, or whether it will not come into effect until Friday at the earliest, as reported by Israeli media. According to reports, the release of the first hostages and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel will begin on that day. (sda/dpa)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
On the same day of the terrorist attack on the Krokus City Hall in Moscow,…
class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/4Residents of Tenerife have had enough of noisy and dirty tourists.It's too loud, the…
class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/7Packing his things in Munich in the summer: Thomas Tuchel.After just over a year,…
At least seven people have been killed and 57 injured in severe earthquakes in the…
The American space agency NASA would establish a uniform lunar time on behalf of the…
class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/8Bode Obwegeser was surprised by the earthquake while he was sleeping. “It was a…