Israel-Palestine live: Israel says 39 more Palestinians freed under truce deal
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Hamas handed over 13 Israeli hostages and four foreigners to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday night, Qatar's foreign ministry said, after a brief disruption earlier to the deal to free captives was overcome with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt.
The four foreigners released were believed to be Thai nationals, according to Reuters.
Earlier reports had said that seven foreign nationals had been released.
The transfer - which had been delayed after Hamas accused Israel of violating the truce agreement - took place "in the context of the humanitarian pause", the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
"13 Israelis and 4 foreigners were received by ICRC and on their way to Rafah," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman, Majed Al Ansari, said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Hamas said on Saturday that its armed wing had handed over 13 Israeli hostages and seven foreign nationals to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza.
The transfer - which had been delayed after Hamas accused Israel of violating the truce agreement - took place "in the context of the humanitarian pause", the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
The hostages were travelling to the Rafah crossing, at Egypt's shared border with the enclave, a Qatari source told Reuters.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani received a phone call from US President Joe Biden on Saturday, who expressed his appreciation for Qatar's role in helping facilitate a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, spokesperson Adrienne Watson for the White House National Security Council said.
For his part, Thani stressed the need to reduce any further escalation, stop the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and find ways to increase the flow of aid into the enclave, a statement from the emir's Diwan said.
Hamas announced on Saturday its appreciation for Qatari- and Egyptian-led efforts at ensuring the continuation of a temporary truce agreement between the group and Israel that began on Friday.
Hamas said in a statement that the Egyptian and Qatari parties had confirmed Israel's commitment to all the terms and conditions of the agreement.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas had decided to delay a second round of hostage releases as part of the truce deal until Israel committed to letting aid trucks enter northern Gaza.
Also eagerly awaiting the latest prisoner release is the family of Shorouq Dwayyat, who is also set to be freed today.
Dwayyat was arrested in 2015 and is serving the ninth year of her 16-year sentence.
She is currently serving the longest sentence among Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli jails.
Reporter Faiz Abu Rmeleh is at the Dwayyat family home in Jerusalem and has sent this image of Shorouq's mother, waiting for news about her daughter.
Dwayyat was 18 when she was arrested and held in the Damon prison in Haifa, accused of stabbing an Israeli settler with a knife. Her family denies these accusations.
“Shorouq is delicate and cannot harm an animal,” her father, Salah Dwayyat, told Al Jazeera at the time.
A total of 13 Israeli hostages are to be freed "tonight" for 39 Palestinian prisoners, in a delayed second exchange agreed as part of a temporary truce in Gaza, a mediator representing Qatar said on Saturday.
Seven foreigners held in Gaza will also be released, it added.
"After a delay, obstacles to release of prisoners were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides, and 39 Palestinian civilians will be released tonight, while 13 Israeli hostages will leave Gaza in addition to 7 foreigners," foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
At least two Palestinians were killed and seven others were injured by Israeli forces on Saturday in the West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Two of the injured are in critical condition, the ministry said.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli forces stormed Jenin early on Saturday evening "from several directions, firing bullets and surrounding government hospitals and the headquarters of the Red Crescent Society".
Egypt is trying to resolve the delay in the second round of Israeli hostage releases from Gaza, a Palestinian official familiar with the matter who did not want to be named told Reuters on Saturday.
Qatar is also in ongoing talks with Israel and Hamas to resolve the delay “as soon as possible”, an official said.
The family of Israa Jaabis, a 37-year-old Palestinian woman held in an Israeli prison since 2015, is eagerly awaiting her release, scheduled for Saturday, according to her sister, although there has been no official confirmation.
Jaabis, 32, was arrested in October 2015 with burns over half of her body after she and her family say a faulty cylinder of cooking gas burst into flames in front of an East Jerusalem checkpoint.
Israeli authorities charged Jaabis with attempting to detonate a bomb in order to harm Israeli soldiers. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
While imprisoned, Jaabis has lived with pain and struggled to receive adequate medical care, according to her lawyer, Lea Tselmel. An appeal against her sentence so that she could be released for treatment was refused by Israeli authorities.
"God willing, we will see her in the next few hours," Israa's son, Motasem, told Middle East Eye's correspondent Latifeh Abdellatif at the Jaabis family home in Jerusalem.
"I will see my mother free after eight years. I pray for her freedom and all Palestinian prisoners. Ever since my mother was arrested, she has been denied medical treatment. When I first see her I will hug her and kiss her. And I will place a flower crown on her head."
"We're impatiently waiting for my sister to be freed," Rola Jaabis, Israa's sister, told MEE.
"Every time we saw her during prison visits we realised how much of an exceptional person she is. Ever since she was a young girl, she was special. She is a very selfless person.
"I can't describe our feelings as a family, especially my parents. I can't find the words. God only knows how much my parents have suffered."
The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Saturday that it was delaying the second round of hostage releases until Israel was committed to letting aid trucks enter northern Gaza.
Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades added that the hostage releases would be delayed if Israel did not adhere to the agreed terms for the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to Reuters.
Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, told the Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen TV channel that the suspension was due to violations of the truce committed by Israel "linked to aid [entering Gaza], in addition to shootings and the rising death toll… Some of [these violations] happened yesterday, and repeated today," Hamdan said.
There was no immediate comment from the Red Cross on whether the release of hostages and detainees had been delayed.
Abraham Gutman, an Israeli journalist working for the Philadelphia Inquirer, tweeted that "the grievances are reportedly the number of trucks and an issue with the list of released Palestinians. Tense and delicate".
Hamas said it has begun the handover of the second batch of hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza.
The group said 14 Israelis were being handed over to the organisation on Saturday.
"The Izz al-dine al-Qassam Brigades have begun handing the second group of Israeli prisoners over to the Red Cross in (the southern city of) Khan Yunis. There are 14 of them," a source told AFP, referring to the armed wing of Hamas.
A patrol from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was hit by Israeli gunfire in southern Lebanon, the peacekeeping force said on Saturday, although there were no casualties.
UNIFIL condemned the attack in Aytaroun, calling it "deeply troubling".
"We strongly remind the parties of their obligations to protect peacekeepers and avoid putting the men and women who are working to restore stability at risk," it said in a statement.
Egypt said on Saturday it had received positive signals from all parties over a possible extension of the temporary Gaza truce for one or two days.
Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt's State Information Service (SIS), said in a statement that the country was holding extensive talks with all parties to reach an agreement over extending the four-day truce, which "means the release of more detainees in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails".
Poland's foreign ministry said on Saturday that a Polish citizen was among the captives released from Gaza.
"We welcome the information about the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which allowed the release of the first group of hostages, including a Polish citizen, and increased supplies of humanitarian aid to the enclave," the ministry said in a statement.
"At the same time, Poland continues to firmly demand that Israel consent to the safe departure from the Gaza Strip by other Polish citizens," the statement added.
Families in Gaza are starting to return to their homes and are looking for their loved ones on the second day of the temporary truce.
Many areas in the al-Shati camp in Gaza City have been reduced to rubble in the seven weeks of ongoing Israeli bombardment.
