Launch of captives taken by Hamas in October 7 assault on southern Israel comes amid four-day truce.
The Palestinian armed group Hamas has launched 24 hostages held captive by the group in Gaza for nearly seven weeks, in keeping with Qatar’s overseas ministry and the Worldwide Crimson Cross (ICRC), hours after an Israel-Hamas truce mediated by Qatar got here into impact.
Among the many captives launched had been 13 Israelis, 10 Thai nationals and one Filipino citizen, Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson of the International Ministry in Qatar, mentioned on Friday.
The ICRC in Israel and the occupied territories mentioned that it transported the group of captives from Gaza to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
“We are relieved to confirm the safe release of 24 hostages,” the ICRC wrote on X, previously Twitter.
“We have facilitated this release by transporting them from Gaza to the Rafah border, marking the real-life impact of our role as a neutral intermediary between the parties.”
The discharge of the 24 captives — out of the roughly 240 taken hostage by Hamas throughout an assault on southern Israel on October 7 — comes as a deal between Israel and Hamas, which features a four-day truce and trade of captives for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, takes impact.
Afterward Friday, Qatar mentioned 39 Palestinian ladies and youngsters detained in Israeli jails had been launched as a part of the deal.
The ICRC confirmed on Friday that its groups had been facilitating the discharge and switch of hostages held in Gaza and of Palestinian detainees.
“The deep pain that family members separated from their loved ones feel is indescribable. We are relieved that some will be reunited after long agony,” mentioned Fabrizio Carboni, the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross’s regional director for the Close to and Center East.
Based on the deal mediated by Qatar, Hamas will launch 50 ladies and youngsters, from about 240 folks taken captive by the group throughout its assault on southern Israel on October 7.
In trade, Israel will launch a complete of 150 Palestinian ladies and youngsters held in Israeli prisons, whom Palestinians have lengthy characterised as victims of an Israeli occupation that sweeps them into prisons with little pretence of due course of.
The captives taken by Hamas on October 7 embrace Israeli troopers and civilians, in addition to folks from dozens of overseas nations. In each Israel and overseas, the households of these held captive have pleaded for his or her launch.
Qatar’s al-Ansari mentioned that the ten Thai nationals and Filipino citizen had been freed exterior the framework of the truce deal.
Earlier on Friday, Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin mentioned 12 Thai nationals assist captive in Gaza had been launched.
“It has been confirmed by the security side and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that 12 Thai hostages are already released,” he posted on X.
Based on Thailand’s overseas ministry, about 30,000 Thais had been employed in Israel, primarily within the nation’s agricultural sector, on the time of the assault, by which a minimum of 32 Thai employees had been killed. Thais searching for work abroad usually come to Israel underneath an association by which they’re paid minimal wage of about $2,000 a month.