As Hamas releases more Israeli hostages, a sample of force is put

On Saturday, Hamas launched four Israeli soldiers of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, in a choreographed ceremony that was the last sign of the group’s effort to project power despite the military campaign of 470 days of Israel to evict them.

It was the second hostage launch as part of a high fire agreement that entered into force almost a week earlier. According to the agreement, Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday who had been held in Israeli prisons.

A white bus line that transports prisoners to prisoners on the left in the West Bank occupied by Israel. The prisoners were also released from another installation near Beersheba in southern Israel, said the Israeli prison service.

Many of the 200 prisoners released on Saturday fulfilled life imprisonment for their participation in attacks against the Israelis. Around 70 are being exiled abroad as part of the agreement and will not be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to a list provided by the Palestinian authorities.

But the exchange of prisoners-host on Saturday was not completely planned. The rear admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, accused Hamas of violating the agreement by not returning to the captive Israeli civilians first. Israeli officials said that, according to the agreement, Arbel Yehud, an Israeli woman had a hostage in Gaza, was supposed to be one of the four women published on Saturday.

It was expected that Israel withdraw some of its forces to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced gacios to go to the north after Saturday exchange. But the Israeli prime minister’s office said it would not allow the Gazans to go to the north “until the release of the Civil Arbel Yehud has been organized,” leaving the moment of the withdrawal of the troops and the return of the residents is not clear .

Hamas accused Israel of doubting to completely implement the high fire agreement. The dispute is one of the most significant among the parties since the high fire entered into force.

Israeli officials said they believed that Mrs. Yehud was not stopped by Hamas, which suggests that she was possibly retained on the other hand, and that the attraction was not just the responsibility of Hamas.

The four Israeli hostages launched by Hamas on Saturday, who were dressed in military -style clothes, had been working as vigilantes for the Israel Army, informing about suspicious activities through the border, when they were captured. During the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, the militants broke into the military base of Nahal Oz in Israel, killing more than 50 soldiers and kidnaping the four women and three other soldiers.

According to the terms of the Alto El Fuego agreement, the struggles between the Israeli army and the militants of Hamas stopped on Sunday morning 19. The first hostages, three women seized in the 2023 attack, were released on Sunday, in return of 90 Palestinians the prisoners arrested in Israel, who were released hours later.

The current phase of Alto El Fuego is to last only 42 days and release only 33 out of about 100 hostages in Gaza, some of which are believed to be dead. Significant diplomatic obstacles to extend the high fire are advanced. Israel and Hamas came to the agreement in part by postponing their most insolubres disputes to a “second phase” vaguely described, which can be difficult to negotiate.

During the hostage delivery ceremony on Saturday, Hamas armed combatants dressed in virgin uniforms, their covered faces, escorted the four hostages to a stage in Palestine Square in the center of the city of Gaza. Then they were delivered to a Red Cross representative.

The ceremony administered by the stage, apparently aimed at transmitting the strength and control of Hamas in Gaza, included some discordant juxtapositions.

The backdrop of the transfer was a great banner printed with slogans, one of which described Palestine in English as “the victory of oppressed people against Nazi Zionism.”

The ceremony was held in an area devastated by the Israel bombing campaign and the incursion into the ground, with hundreds of uniformed combatants and civilians gathered nearby. Hamas fighters were bathed in confetti.

The hostages smiled and greeted the spectators of cheers and whistles. In the past, Israeli officials have said that Hamas has forced the hostages to seem happy to suggest that they were well treated.

Almidante Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman is a henical ceremony.

Hamas “presented a false sample of caring for hostages, when in fact, he has cruelly kept men and women for 477 days,” said Admiral Hagari.

Before the four hostages were published, Hamas celebrated a signature ceremony on stage, between one of its members and a Red Cross representative. The hostages were driven by the Red Cross to the Israeli troops parked in the territory.

Two Israeli helicopters took the hosts to the Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikva, a city in the center of Israel, to the enthusiastic cheers of hundreds who gathered to welcome upon arrival with Israeli flags.

“We wanted to show the hostages and their families how much we take care of them,” said Helena Dabush, 42, who lives nearby and brought four children.

The released hostages were all adolescents and recent recruits in the army when they were kidnapped. Karina Ariev, now 20 years old, is the daughter of immigrants from Ukraine; Daniella Gilboa, 20, is an aspiring concert pianist from center of Israel; Naama Levy, 20, was a triathlete who grew up in a city north of Tel Aviv; and Liri Albag, 19, is an aspiring architect and interior designer.

There was also joy in the busy city of the city of Ramallah, where hundreds of Palestinians gathered in a municipal building to welcome the released Palestinian prisoners and pressed to grab their loved ones while leaving the Red Cross buses.

Some released prisoners, who still used gray uniforms apparently emitted by the Israeli penitentiary authority, were retained on the shoulders of the singer.

“We leave our jail but the price is high for our freedom,” said Mohammad Arda, one of the released prisoners, to journalists, while family and friends snuggled around them. “I am thinking of the families of the inmates we lost during the last year and a half.”

The 90 prisoners released almost a week before by Israel were mostly women and minors. This time, the Israeli authorities released many people who were convicted of much heavier crimes, including the murder of Israeli civilians.

According to the Israeli government, Mr. Arda, an activist in the militant group of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, had been sentenced to life imprisonment for attempted murder and planting of an explosive device, among other crimes. He was one of the six prisoners who briefly escaped an Israeli prison in 2021, impressive Israeli and Palestinians, before being caught.

It is assumed that more than 1,500 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel are released as part of the first stage of the High Fire contract and the release of hostages. Hamas has pledged to launch 33 hostages; 97, around a third of which the Israeli army believes that they are deceased, they were detained in Gaza when the agreement entered into force last Sunday, according to Israeli authorities.

Around 120 of the Palestinian prisoners released on Saturday fulfilled life imprisonment for their participation in attacks against Israelis, according to the lists provided by the prison office linked to Hamas. Those launched on Saturday included Mohammad Odeh, Wael Qassim and Wissam Abbasi, who were arrested in 2002 by a series of mortal bombings aimed at Israelis in crowded civil areas. The three were fulfilling life imprisonment.

One of the most infamous attacks in the group, which took place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killed nine people, including five Americans.

The three men are among those scheduled to be exiled abroad and will never be allowed to return to their homes in Jerusalem, according to the terms of the agreement.

Still uncertain on Saturday was when the Palestinians displaced in the south and center of Gaza could return to their neighborhoods in the north, many of which were destroyed by the Israel bombing campaign.

The robbery in the withdrawal of the Israeli troop left many Palestinians in an anxious waiting state, since they were already packing their belongings, including kitchen supplies, clothing and mattress pads.

“My husband and I have been waiting for this day so anticipated, but I can’t help feeling scared by the great destruction that I will see on the way back,” said Nour Qasim, 22, originally resident of Gaza City.

El Alto El Fuego had been negotiated by mediators of Qatar, Egypt, and representatives of both the outgoing Biden Administration and the incoming administration of Trump. It was a rare instance of high profile cooperation between the two teams, but the difference in how they can consider the conflict became evident on Friday.

The Trump administration said it would proceed with a shipping of 2,000 -pound bombs to Israel that last summer, the then president Joseph R. Biden Jr. stopped abruptly to try to deter Israeli from destroying a large part of the city of Rafah , that the one that the Israeli forces did it anyway.

The shipment includes 1,800 MK-84 bombs, said a White House official, who agreed to discuss the help of delicate weapons on the condition of anonymity. These bombs are judged by US military officers who are generally too lethal and destructive to urban combat. Until the unemployed, the Biden administration had sent the bombs to Israel while its army fought against Hamas in Gaza.

The report was contributed by Fatima Abdulkarianim, AFIF Amireh, Natan Odenheimer, Sheikh Ahmad cartilageBilal Shbhair, Aritz Parra and Edward Wong.