Hamas on Thursday (Nov 30) released eight Israeli hostages in Gaza under a last-minute truce deal and and Israel freed 30 Palestinian prisoners as negotiators sought to renew the pause in fighting again.
Israel identified two women who were released first on Thursday as 21-year-old Mia Schem, among those seized at a dance party that Hamas militants attacked on Oct 7, and 40-year-old Amit Soussana.
Photos released by the Israeli prime minister’s office showed Schem, who also holds French nationality, embracing her mother and brother after they were reunited at Hatzerim military base in Israel.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas then freed a group of six more hostages, transferring them to the Red Cross, the Israeli military said. Four were women aged 29 to 41, including one Mexican-Israeli dual national, according to official information.
Television images showed some of the women walking past ambulances once they reached Israeli territory.
The other two newly released hostages were a brother and sister, Belal and Aisha al-Ziadna, aged 18 and 17 respectively, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. They are Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel and among four members of their family taken hostage while they were milking cows on a farm.
Wahid Alhuzail, who chairs a group for Bedouins kidnapped on Oct 7, said he was happy they were freed.
“But it’s not completely fulfilling. We want everyone to come home and for nobody to be stuck in the hands of the terror organisation Hamas,” he told Reuters.
As part of the agreement, 30 Palestinians were released from jails, the Israeli prison service said.
Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Until the truce, Israel bombarded the territory for seven weeks. Palestinian health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed.
While Israel required Hamas to release 10 hostages daily to continue the Qatari-mediated truce, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said there would be no more hostages freed on Thursday beyond the eight.
Israeli officials accepted eight rather than 10 hostages because Hamas on Wednesday released two extra hostages, the Qatari spokesperson said. They were Israeli-Russian women whose liberty the Palestinian faction described as a goodwill gesture to Moscow.
