Thirteen Israeli and four Thai nationals released from Hamas captivity arrived in Israel on Sunday and were set to be reunited with their families as part of a crucial hostage deal, which briefly risked falling apart due to a dispute over aid supplies.
The short-lived row over aid that threatened the temporary truce to free captives was overcome with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt but it underscored the fragility of the agreement, through which a total of 50 Israeli hostages are to be exchanged for 150 Palestinian prisoners over four days.
In exchange for the Israeli hostages, 39 Palestinian civilians including 33 minors were going to be released from Israeli prisons. Al Jazeera TV carried live footage of what it called a Red Cross bus carrying a large number of cheering Palestinian prisoners released from an Israeli prison on its way to Beitunia town, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Television footage showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza, as Hamas handed over the captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) late on Saturday. Of the 13 Israelis released, six were women and seven were children and teenagers, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.