Hamas group, the Military wing of the Palestinian enclave, said released a new set of 20 Israeli captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Saturday night.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed Hamas transferred the hostages back to Israel through the Palestinian enclave’s border with Egypt.
IDF has acknowledged the exchange, but said that according to its information, only “17 abductees were transferred They include13 Israelis and four abductees with Thai citizenship”.
“An elite unit of the IDF and a force of the Shin Bet are now accompanying the abductees who have returned to Israel in Israel.
“After undergoing an initial assessment of their medical condition, our forces will accompany the returnees until they reach their families in the hospitals,” the IDF added.
The prisoner swap elayed after Hamas accused Israel of violating deal on the second day of the temporary truce.
But eventually, the swap occurred “in context of the humanitarian pause,” the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
“After a delay, obstacles to release of prisoners were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides,” Qatari Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari said.
Earlier in the day, Al-Ansari added that Hamas would release eight Israeli children and five women. This would be in addition to seven foreigners.
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This wouyld be in exchange for the release of 39 Palestinian civilians from Israeli prisons.
On Friday, the first day of ceasefire that paused intense bombardment of Gaza, Hamas released 24 of around 240 hostages.
In exchange, Israel freed 39 Palestinians. These included 13 Israelis, ten nationals of Thailand and one from the Philippines.
Israel’s prison service said on Saturday that it was preparing for the release of a further 42 Palestinian prisoners. On its side, Hamas is to exchange 14 Israelis and several foreigners.
Under the cease-fire term, Hamas agreed to release one Israeli hostage for every three Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
Throughout the four-day truce, Hamas will release 50 Israeli captives, while Israel will hand over 150 Palestinians.
Israel also indicated the cease-fire could extend by a day for every ten hostages Hamas will free. (RT.com)
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