12 more Israeli captives freed as mediators seek lasting truce

GAZA:

A truce between Israel and Hamas enters its sixth day Wednesday after additional captives were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, with mediators pushing for a "sustainable" ceasefire.

After a 48-hour extension of an initial four-day truce, a new group of 12 captives was freed from Gaza on Tuesday, with 30 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons.

The final 24 hours of the extended agreement begins later Wednesday, with one more exchange of captives for prisoners expected, but mediator Qatar said it was hoping for a more durable arrangement.

Newly released Palestinian prisoner Rouba Assi is carried by supporters during a welcome ceremony for prisoners freed from Israeli jails. PHOTO: AFP

"Our main focus right now, and our hope, is to reach a sustainable truce that will lead to further negotiations and eventually to an end... to this war," foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari told a Doha news conference.

"However, we are working with what we have. And what we have right now is the provision to the agreement that allows us to extend days as long as Hamas is able to guarantee the release of at least 10 hostages."

That provision has allowed the two-day extension that saw 10 Israeli captives released from Gaza overnight Tuesday, along with two Thais freed outside the scope of the agreement.
An AFP journalist saw masked and armed fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad hand over hostages to Red Cross officials in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

The Israeli captives freed were all women, including 17-year-old Mia Leimberg, who returned to Israel with her mother and aunt.

Israel's government has received a list of the new captives to be freed Wednesday, local media reported. There was no official confirmation.

So far, 60 Israeli captives have been freed from Gaza under the terms of the deal, with a Russian-Israeli, 20 Thais and one Filipino freed outside the scope of the agreement.

In return, 180 Palestinian prisoners -- all women and children -- have been released from Israeli jails.

Among them was 14-year-old Ahmad Salaima who returned to his home in east Jerusalem to cheers and hugs from relatives.

"When Ahmed was in prison, we couldn't visit him, even though he's the youngest Palestinian prisoner at just 14 years old," his father Nayef said.

The truce agreement has brought a temporary halt to fighting. Israel's aerial and land bombardment of Gaza has killed nearly 15,000 people, and rendered large parts of the territory's north uninhabitable.

The World Food Programme warned Tuesday that Gaza's population faced a "high risk of famine if WFP is not able to provide continued access to food."

Conditions in the territory are "catastrophic," the agency's Middle East director said, while a spokesman for the UN children's agency UNICEF said aid entering Gaza under the truce deal was "not even enough for triage."

The dire humanitarian situation has piled on pressure for a more lasting pause or even an end to the fighting, though Israel has made clear it sees the truce as a brief interlude to ensure hostage releases before its war continues.

The head of the CIA and the director of Israel's Mossad spy agency were in Doha to discuss the truce with Qatar's prime minister, a source briefed on their visit said, asking not to be named because of the talks' sensitivity.

The discussions aim "to build on the progress of the extended humanitarian pause agreement and to initiate further discussions about the next phase of a potential deal," the source added.

On Tuesday, Hamas and Israel traded accusations of truce violations, but Qatar's Ansari said the "minimal breaches" did not "harm the essence of the agreement."

Israel's allies have been wary of calling for a complete end to military operations designed to eliminate Hamas, but foreign ministers from the Group of Seven have urged a longer truce.

Pro-Palestine supporters gather for a rally at the Egyptian Consulate on November 28, 2023 in New York City. PHOTO: AFP

"We support the further extension of this pause and future pauses as needed to enable assistance to be scaled up, and to facilitate the release of all hostages," they said in a statement Tuesday.

Washington has also warned Israel that any fresh offensive in southern Gaza must be "done in a way... not designed to produce significant further displacement," a senior US official said.

An estimated 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to leave their homes so far, more than half the territory's population.

"I hope this truce will lead to a complete ceasefire, because we are fed up of sleeping outdoors in the rain, of losing our loved ones and having to flee," said Umm Mohammed, who was driven from her home in northern Gaza by the assault.

The truce in Gaza has not ended violence in the occupied West Bank, where two Palestinian teenagers were killed in clashes with Israeli troops on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Since October 7, more than 230 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the ministry.