More Hostages Released, Hamas Says Ready To Free All Israeli Soldiers For Palestinian Prisoners

Hamas has released 16 more hostages as efforts are underway to extend the truce with Israel.

Hamas has released 16 more hostages as efforts are underway to extend the truce with Israel.

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Hamas has released 16 more hostages from captivity in Gaza as inteste efforts continue to extend the truce with Israel to allow more exchanges. The Israeli Defence said that two of the hostages who crossed into Egypt had Russian citizenship. Meanwhile, the Israel military radio informed that 10 Israelis and four Thai nationals were given to the Red Cross in Gaza. The release comes in exchange for the release of 30 Palestinian prisoners by Israel.

Meanwhile, Hamas has reportedly agreed to release all Israeli soldiers in their captivity on the condition that all Palestinian prisoners in Israel be freed. News agency AFP said Hamas official and former Gaza health minister Bassem Naim said the outfit was already in the middle of "hard negotiations" to extend the truce.

"We are ready to release all soldiers in exchange for all our prisoners," Naim told the media. Israeli prison authorities said that the release of hostages came as 30 Palestinian prisoners were freed overnight. “During the night, 30 male and female security prisoners were released from a number of prison facilities,” the country’s prison service said in a statement, as quoted by The Guardian.

The release included well-known activist Ahed Tamimi. According to The Guardian, the first two Israeli hostages released were Yelena Trupanob, 50, and her mother, Irena Tati, a doctor aged 73, both Russian-Israelis. Hamas said that the two were released outside the framework of the hostage deal between Hamas and Israel, as a “tribute” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The other 10 Israeli hostages (five women and five children) were released under a two-day extension to a ceasefire deal agreed last week. Thirty Palestinian prisoners were due to be freed from Israeli jails in return.

US President Joe Biden stated the released hostages included an Israeli-American woman, Liat Beinin, 49. Biden said that he had spoken to her mother and father. “They’re very appreciative and things are moving well,” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “She’ll soon be home with her three children,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian.

On Tuesday, Hamas released a fifth batch of 12 hostages including 10 Israeli women and 2 Thai citizens amid efforts by the negotiators to extend the truce. All the 12 hostages released were between the age groups 17 to 84 and included a mother-daughter pair, reported Reuters.

All the hostages were given an initial medical check after which they were moved to Israeli hospitals where they were to meet their families. Shortly later, 30 Palestinians were released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank and a Jerusalem detention centre. 

160 Hostages Still Held In Gaza, Says Israel

Israel said on Wednesday that 160 hostages are still held in Gaza, and of those, 126 are men. According to The Guardian, four are under the age of 18, and 10 are over the age of 75. Since the beginning of the truce, a total of 60 Israelis have been freed. Another 21 hostages—including 19 Thais, one Filipino, and one Russian-Israeli—have been released in separate negotiations.

CIA Directors Spend Second Day In Doha With Aim To Stretch Truce

The directors of the CIA and the Mossad, William Burns and David Barnea, have spent a second day in Doha in talks with the Qatari government with the aim of stretching the truce further.

According to The Guardian, Hamas has reportedly indicated that it is ready for a four-day extension, which would stretch the pause through Monday.

“We are hopeful that within a couple of hours we will have the release of the final batch [of hostages], but also we will be able to announce an extension,” the spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry, Majed Al-Ansari, told CNN. “We are very optimistic that we will have good news to share today.”

US Secretary Of State Antony Blinken Arrives In Israel

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Israel early on Thursday. Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv with the aim of convincing the Israeli government to agree to an extension and to continue humanitarian aid across the border from Egypt into Gaza.

“We’ll discuss with Israel how it can achieve its objective of ensuring that the terrorist attacks of October 7 never happen again while sustaining and increasing humanitarian assistance and minimising further suffering and casualties among Palestinian civilians,” Blinken told reporters in Brussels, as quoted by The Guardian.