The first group of hostages taken captive by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel were released from Gaza hours after the initial four-day cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas took effect Friday morning.
Thirteen Israeli hostages were handed over by Hamas on Friday, the head of Israel’s government press office confirmed to CBS News just after 5 p.m. local time.
Twelve Thai nationals were also released around 4 p.m. local time. The Thai Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, said on social media that Thai embassy officials were going to pick up the released hostages.
The chairman of Egypt’s State Information Service Diaa Rashwan said the release of the Thai nationals came after “intensive Egyptian efforts.”
The releases are part of a deal that calls for Hamas to free at least 50 hostages and Israel to release dozens of Palestinians from its prisons. Israel’s military sounded alarms in several villages near Gaza just minutes after the short-term truce began Friday morning, warning of possible incoming rocket fire, but there was no immediate word of ongoing violence between Israeli forces and Hamas, leaving hope that the first hostage releases under the deal would still go forward later Friday.
The cease-fire got underway at 7 a.m. local time, which is midnight on the U.S. East Coast. The Israeli military did not make any official announcement at that time but said in a statement less than two hours later that it had “completed its operational preparations according to the combat lines of the pause.”
A Spokesperson stressed in a social media post just minutes after 7 a.m. local time that the suspension of hostilities was temporary, and “the war is not over yet.”
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee warned that the northern Gaza Strip remained “a dangerous war zone and it is forbidden to move around” there, adding that people in the decimated Palestinian territory “must remain in the humanitarian zone in the south of the Strip” and only move toward that area on one designated road, adding that “the movement of residents from the south of the Strip to the north will not be allowed in any way.”
Under the terms of the deal brokered earlier this week with the help of the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, 50 hostages — all women and children who were kidnapped by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel — will be freed in batches over four days.
They are among an estimated 240 captives who are still believed to be held in Gaza. Three American hostages are expected to be among those 50, per a senior Biden administration official.
In exchange for the hostages, the Israeli military agreed to the four-day pause in the war. The Israeli government said in a statement Tuesday that the release of “every 10 additional hostages” on top of those 50 “will result in one additional day in the pause.”
Up to this point, only four Hamas hostages have been released, two Americans and two Israelis.
“Of course, our aim is for this deal to end with a lasting truce,” said Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, at a news conference Thursday. “Right now, of course, the confines of this deal are these four days that are subject to a second phase, and following phases of expanding the pause through the formula of getting more hostages out, and therefore getting more time for the parties. We are hoping that momentum will carry, and that we would find this would open the door for further and more deep negotiations towards an end to this violence.”
The deal also included the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners, most of them women and children, who are being held in Israeli prisons. The Associated Press reported that journalists from their agency saw Palestinians waiting to greet the released prisoners had tear gas fired at them by the IDF.
@CBS