The war between Israel and Hamas: The second exchange of hostages and prisoners is completed after a delay

The exchange was the latest part of the agreement that allows for an extension of the temporary pause in fighting. Israel said that it was prepared to grant another day’s grace for every 10 hostages that Hamas releases after the fifty stipulated in the agreement, but Hamas did not respond to the offer.

“The question is day five,” said Alon Pinkas, an Israeli political commentator and former senior diplomat. “Will Israel resume the war?”

An extension that allows more hostages to be released could provide more relief to Israelis who view the hostages’ freedom as the country’s most immediate priority. It is possible that this feeling will spread more widely among Israelis with each passing day of the ceasefire and the release of more hostages.

“And Hamas knows this very well,” said Shira Efron, a senior researcher at the Israel Policy Forum, a New York-based policy research group. “They will play with Israel and say, ‘Oh, we found five more kids. If you give us one more day, there are a few more up north that we can find.’”

But a longer pause could jeopardize the primary goal of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza: destroying Hamas, the militant group that led the October 7 raid that killed an estimated 1,200 people in southern Israel and led to the kidnapping of nearly 240 hostages. According to the Israeli authorities.

If the ceasefire lasts longer than four days, Hamas – which controlled the entire Gaza Strip until Israel invaded last month – will have more time to regroup, allowing it to mount a more aggressive defense when Israel renews its ranks. Its military campaign.

An extended ceasefire could create more opportunities for other countries – especially the United States – to pressure Israel to reduce its military objectives. The Israeli response to the October 7 attack killed more than 12,000 Gazans, according to health officials there, leading to growing concern among Israel’s allies about the conduct of its campaign.

President Biden, speaking on Friday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, said “the chances are real” that the pause would open the door to a longer ceasefire.

But even if the United States pushes Israel to end or moderate its military campaign, Israeli leaders could simply ignore the criticism and go ahead with the invasion.

Ending the war now would leave Hamas in control of most of Gaza.

For the Israeli leadership, the war “is about eliminating and destroying Hamas,” Mr. Pinkas said. “So anything less is not a win. If Hamas retains and maintains the remaining political power, Hamas can claim it has won.

Debate over the future of the war was unfolding as Hamas and Israel indicated they were going ahead with a second hostage swap after an hours-long delay earlier on Saturday, raising fears the fragile agreement could collapse.

Early Sunday, Israel confirmed that 17 hostages had arrived in Israel from Gaza, and that it had released 39 Palestinian prisoners in return.

Earlier in the day, Hamas accused Israel of violating the terms of the truce, saying it did not allow sufficient aid to reach northern Gaza and did not release Palestinian prisoners in accordance with the agreed upon terms.

Israel denied that it had violated the terms of the agreement and hinted that the four-day ceasefire would end early if Hamas did not release the second group of hostages. “We stand by our part of the framework,” said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, an IDF spokesman.

Hours later, Qatar, which helped mediate the deal alongside Egypt, said the two mediators were able to overcome unspecified obstacles that delayed the exchange. Qatar said that Hamas would release the hostages while Israel would release Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas announced that it would move forward with the release of more hostages after Qatar and Egypt agreed that Israel would adhere to “all the conditions detailed in the agreement.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior security officials late Saturday evening in an attempt to ensure the exchange went as planned, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

On Friday, Hamas released 13 Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of 39 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Hamas also released ten Thai nationals and one Filipino as part of separate negotiations on Friday.

There were no Americans among the hostages released on Friday or Saturday. Mr. Biden said on Friday that his “hope and expectation” is that they will be released soon.

A Biden administration official, who was not authorized to discuss national security issues and requested anonymity, said on Saturday that the White House remained “optimistic” that the American hostages would be released in “the coming days.”

In addition to allowing the exchange of hostages and prisoners, the agreement also allowed more aid to enter Gaza. The Israeli blockade largely prevents the entry of food, water, fuel and medicine, creating a humanitarian crisis for the 2.3 million Palestinians living there.

On Friday, 196 aid trucks crossed into the enclave, according to Wael Abu Omar, spokesman for the border crossing with Egypt. Omar said that another 200 trucks were scheduled to cross into Gaza on Saturday, including 185 trucks that had entered by Saturday evening.

According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, 59 of those trucks, loaded with food, water, medicines and emergency medical supplies, arrived in heavily bombed northern Gaza on Saturday.

The volume of aid was the largest since the conflict began on October 7, but was still far short of the 500 truckloads per day that entered Gaza before the war. Residents said it was nowhere near what was needed.

Before dawn on Saturday, hundreds of people lined up in front of a gas station in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip to fill cooking gas canisters, but supplies quickly ran out.

“Any help? We haven’t seen any help,” said Mohamed Youssef, a 42-year-old non-profit organization employee, who waited for fuel to arrive at 4 a.m. only to find it had run out.

With the release of prisoners and hostages, Israelis and Palestinians have been watching the reunions with a mixture of hope and fear.

Yoni Asher, whose family was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, in southern Israel, was reunited with his wife, Doron Katz Asher, and two daughters, Raz, 4, and Aviv, 2, at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Israel on Friday.

In a video posted by the hospital on Saturday, Mr Asher can be seen hugging them on a hospital bed.

“Did you miss me? Did you think about my father?” Mr. Asher asked his daughters, and Mrs. Katz Asher grumbled to them: “All the time.”

“I dreamed we were home,” Raz said.

“Your dream has come true,” Mr. Asher said with a smile. “We are home, we will go home soon.”

For many families, joy was tempered by pain over the fate of the prisoners still in Gaza.

“We are happy, but we are not celebrating,” Roy Zakri said in a video statement after his 9-year-old brother, Ohad Mandar Zakri, was released on Friday. He added: “We need to continue the struggle until all the hostages, every single one of them, are released.”

In the West Bank, on Friday, Palestinians celebrated the release of women and minors arrested by the Israeli authorities. Some praised Hamas, saying the group was responsible for freeing their relatives and neighbors. Others said the death toll in Gaza cast a pall over the reunions.

Najah Hassan, 50, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club NGO in Ramallah, said: “We are unable to celebrate the way we are accustomed to, unfortunately, because of the bloodshed that is taking place in Gaza.”

After the truce came into effect, some displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza tried to walk to the northern part of the Strip on Friday to check on their homes or relatives, despite warnings from Israeli officials not to go there. Israeli forces on the ground opened fire on them, according to eyewitnesses, an Egyptian official, and some of the wounded. The Israeli army refused to answer questions related to the shooting.

He contributed to the preparation of the reports Raja Abdul Rahim, Abu Bakr Bashir, Aaron Puckerman, Victoria Kim, Lisa Friedman, Julian Barnes And Michael Levinson.