On the first day of a truce, guns fell silent in the Gaza Strip for the first time in seven weeks and Hamas freed 24 hostages, including Israeli women and children and Thai farmers.
Thirteen Israelis, some with dual citizenship, were freed, as well as 10 Thais and one Filipino. Thirty-nine Palestinian women and children were released from Israeli prisons, according to Qatar, which mediated the release.
“We have just completed the return of the first batch of our hostages. Children, their mothers and other women. Each and every one of them is a world in itself,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, noting that the Israeli side is “committed to returning all our hostages.”
The released Israeli hostages include four children accompanied by four family members and five other elderly women.
The hostages were handed over to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, accompanied by eight International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff in a convoy of four vehicles, the ICRC said.
