After several hours of tension over Hamas' announcement that it would delay the handover of the hostages, the Palestinian Islamist group said in the afternoon that 13 Israeli captives and 7 foreigners will be released in Gaza "tonight", in line with the announcement made minutes earlier by Qatar, which mediated this agreement.
Hamas had announced that it would delay the delivery of hostages scheduled for this Saturday "due to Israel's non-compliance" with the temporary truce agreement to exchange those captured in the Gaza Strip for Palestinian prisoners and allow humanitarian aid to enter the coastal enclave, which was denied by the Israeli government, which warned that it will resume hostilities if the second group of hostages is not released by midnight (19 September). Argentina).
Majed al-Ansari, spokesman for Qatar's Foreign Ministry, said that after "a delay" a second exchange of Israeli hostages with Palestinian prisoners will proceed on Saturday after "overcoming the obstacles" that caused Hamas to delay the exchange.
"After a delay in the implementation of the release of prisoners from both sides, the obstacles were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian communications with both sides, and tonight 39 Palestinian civilians will be released in exchange for the release of 13 Israeli detainees from Gaza in addition to 7 foreigners outside the framework of the agreement," the Qatari official said on his official X account (formerly Twitter).
Among those released from Israeli prisons are "33 children and 6 women", while the Israeli hostages held by Hamas who will be released are 8 children and 5 women, in addition to the 7 foreigners, of whom he did not give details.
An Egyptian official told EFE that the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had already begun to move to receive the hostages.
Hamas delayed the handover of a second batch of hostages, scheduled for early afternoon, and accused Israel of violating the terms of the agreement they reached regarding the entry of humanitarian aid and the release of long-serving Palestinian prisoners.
The anguished wait for the relatives of the people kidnapped by Hamas, this Saturday in Tel Aviv. Photo: AP
Tension and threat of more bombing
After several hours of silence following Hamas' announcement, the Israeli government reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carried out on Saturday afternoon "an assessment of the situation with all security elements to verify that the second phase is progressing as planned."
According to Hebrew media, Israel had threatened the Islamist group with resuming the military offensive in Gaza if it did not release the second batch of captives by midnight.
The parties agreed this week, with the mediation of Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to exchange 50 Israeli hostages for 150 Palestinian prisoners, during a four-day truce, and the entry of 200 trucks of humanitarian aid daily into the Gaza Strip.
The Islamist group regretted that the aid that has reached the north of the Strip has been "much less than agreed", accused Israel of not meeting the seniority criterion in releasing the 39 prisoners yesterday; as well as violating the truce by shooting dead two Gazans as they tried to visit their homes in the north of the enclave, taking advantage of the pause in fighting.
Source: Agencies