2023-11-25 18:01:00
The Islamist group Hamas reported this Saturday that it will delay the delivery of a second group of hostages that they were to be released under an understanding of truce until Israel “adhere to the terms of the agreement” to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
The entry of aid to the north of the coastal enclave and the selection criteria for the release of prisoners were the issues in question, the organizations said in a statement. Brigadas Ezzedine al-Qassamarmed wing of the group of Palestinian origin.
Among the freed hostages are relatives of Argentines who had been kidnapped by Hamas
The group of hostages captured in the Hamas attacks once morest southern Israel on October 7 were to be handed over on the second day of the four-day truce agreement between Israel and the Islamist movement, and Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for “a ration, three to one.”
“We delay the release of the second group of prisoners until the occupying party complies with the terms of the agreement regarding the truck entrance and the agreed rules for the release of Palestinian prisoners,” they added in the letter.
For its part, an Israeli government source assured the AFP agency that “Israel has not violated the agreement“, at the same time they stated that the hostages have not yet been handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
A first group of 24 hostages, 13 of them Israelis, were released this Friday in exchange for the release of 39 Palestinian prisoners. This Saturday, the process began to be affected by various difficulties following the failed delivery of the second group to the ICRC.
Officially it was reported that the truck with the prisoners was “arrested in Khan Yunis”, in the south of the Gaza Strip, and might not leave for Rafah, the border crossing with Egypt. The truce was reached following several weeks of negotiations between Israel and the terrorist group, and provides for the release of 50 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and of 150 Palestinians who are imprisoned in Israeli prisons.
It also included a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave and the daily entry of humanitarian aid into that territory.
Overwhelmed hospitals
The truce represents a first moment of respite for the inhabitants of Gaza, who are subject to a “total siege” by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, with almost no access to water, food, electricity or medicine. In hospitals in the south of the enclave, ambulances evacuating the wounded are still arriving.
However, Ashraf al-Qidrehspokesperson for the Gazan Ministry of Health, in charge of Hamasmaintained that the same “They no longer have the capacity to transport or equipment“. The army believes that the northern third of the Gaza Strip is a combat zone that houses the center of infrastructure of the Islamic movement. For this reason, they ordered the population to leave that area and have prevented them from returning.
Even so, thousands of Palestinians, who had fled to the south, tried to go to the north of the Strip, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which reported one death and several injuries in incidents with Israeli forces. who prevented their passage.
According to the Ministry of Health of Hamas, seven people were injured by Israeli gunfire. The truce must also allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza; and in that context on Friday 200 convoys entered of trucks loaded with aid, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry service.
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