2nd prisoner-hostage swap completed

GAZA/JERUSALEM — About three dozen Palestinian prisoners released by Israel arrived in the West Bank on Sunday, after Hamas released 17 hostages in the second round of swaps under a cease-fire deal.

Late on Saturday Israel received the second group of hostages released from the Gaza Strip, including 13 Israelis and four Thais, who had crossed into Egypt and were en route to Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said.

"After undergoing an initial medical assessment they will continue to be accompanied by IDF soldiers as they make their way to Israeli hospitals, where they will be reunited with their families."

Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Sunday that the released Thais were in good health.

"Everybody is safe, on the whole in good mental health and is able to speak normally."

As part of the prisoner-hostage swap agreement with Hamas, Israel released 39 Palestinians — six women and 33 minors — from two prisons, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The swap was scheduled for about 4 pm local time on Saturday. It was delayed for several hours after Hamas accused Israel of failing to meet the terms of a four-day humanitarian cease-fire agreement, which was agreed upon by the two sides on Wednesday after more than six weeks of bloody conflict.

A Palestinian source told Xinhua News Agency that Hamas was expecting the delivery of "large quantities" of humanitarian aid to Gaza City and the rest of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, rather than supplies being provided to the southern part of the enclave only.

Hamas also demanded that the Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel should include those from the Gaza Strip, the source said.

Taher al-Nono, an adviser to the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said Israel had breached the agreement, particularly with regard to the entry of humanitarian aid trucks.

An Israeli official threatened that if Hamas did not release the second group of Israeli hostages before midnight the Israeli army would "restart ground operations "in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media outlets reported, without providing further details.

The "obstacles" were later solved through "Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides", a spokesman for Qatar's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday night.

The office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced early on Sunday that it had received a new list of hostages due to be released later in the day in the third of four scheduled swaps.

Mediation efforts

Under mediation by Qatar and Egypt, Hamas and Israel on Wednesday agreed to a four-day humanitarian cease-fire to force a temporary halt to the fighting between the two sides.

After the truce deal went into effect on Friday, Hamas released 24 hostages, including 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and one Filipino, and Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners. The release of non-Israeli nationals was not part of the truce deal.

The conflict has killed nearly 15,000 Palestinians, the Hamasrun Health Ministry has said. Israel said about 1,200 people were killed in Israel in the conflict.

Sixty-one truckloads of aid were delivered to northern Gaza on Saturday, the largest number since the conflict broke out on Oct 7, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Saturday.

The aid included food, water and emergency medical supplies. Eleven ambulances, three coaches and a flatbed were delivered to Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza to help with medical evacuations, it said.

Another 200 trucks were dispatched from the Israeli border town of Nitzana to the Rafah crossing. Of them, 187 entered Gaza by Saturday night local time. In addition, 129,000 liters of fuel crossed into Gaza, the office said.

Xinhua - Agencies