First group of hostages set for release today
Israelis brace for emotional day as first group of 13 hostages are set for release at 4 pm Israel time (1am AEDT tomorrow).
The first pause in the almost seven-week war in Gaza initiated by Hamas in response to its October 7 atrocities is expected to start at 7 am this morning, if all goes according to plan.
Nine hours later, the first group of 13 hostages taken from Israel on October 7 and held by Hamas in Gaza will be freed, according to the agreement which officials have touted but with caveats about possible hurdles or curveballs.
Israel has the list of the first 13 hostages of 50 set to be released over the course of the four-day pause in fighting in Gaza, after which Israel has vowed to resume military operations in full force. Israel will also release 150 Palestinian prisoners, females and minors.
Israel said the temporary truce could be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed by the terrorists.
Authorities developed a set protocol for treating the freed hostages, as Israelis brace for difficult days ahead.
Hamas has said that in addition to the Qatar-mediated hostage deal with Israel, it will also release 23 Thai hostages it is holding in Gaza, without any conditions, following Iranian mediation between the Palestinian terror group and the Thai government, the London-based pan-Arab news site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.
Quoting an unnamed Egyptian source, the Arabic-language outlet says Tehran has provided Bangkok with details on the condition of the 23 abductees, who were kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas onslaught in which thousands of terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, including dozens of Thai workers, and took over 240 hostage.
Yesterday, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari warned that there may be changes amid the hostage deal with Hamas, and that the terror group will attempt to use “psychological terror” against the Israeli public.
He says officers have contacted the hostages’ families and notified them who is being released, “with the necessary reservations.”
“These will be complex days, nothing is final until it actually happens. And even amid the process, there may be changes at any moment,” he says.
“It is important to note that Hamas is a ruthless enemy. Difficult days are ahead of us, joy mixed with sadness,” he says.
“Hamas will try to use the days of the deal and the pause in fighting to spread fear, disinformation and psychological terror,” Hagari warns.
He says that the deal is not “the end of the process, but the start.”
In answer to a question, Hagari adds: “We have [overall] goals that must be attained — to demolish Hamas; to bring home the hostages; to organize the borders to ensure that they are secure, and to create deterrence in the region.”
“This stage,” of the current deal with Hamas, he cautions, “until it happens, it doesn’t happen. If it indeed happens [from] tomorrow morning, it is a finite period in which we are going to bring female and male hostages home. After that, we will continue with the fighting. Returning the hostages is in stages, and the military campaign is in stages.”
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