2023-11-29 04:39:09
According to media reports, Israel received another list of names of hostages from the terrorist organization Hamas. The G7 countries also called for an extension of the ceasefire.
On Tuesday evening, the Islamists released ten Israelis and two foreigners, including a 75-year-old woman whose application for Austrian citizenship is regarding to be finalized. She was married to an Austrian man who has since died. A total of 81 hostages were released during the break in fighting that began on Friday. 61 of them are Israelis, some of whom have other citizenships, and 20 are foreigners. In return, Israel has so far released 180 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons.
The Gulf Emirate of Qatar, Egypt and the USA are mediating in talks regarding the ceasefire. According to information from the German Press Agency, CIA Director William Burns and the head of the Israeli foreign secret service Mossad, David Barnea, arrived in Doha on Tuesday to talk to Qatari Prime Minister Abdulrahman Al Thani regarding extending the break. Qatar has good contacts with the organization. The Hamas leadership lives in the Gulf Emirate.
As in previous days, Hamas sent another list of hostages to be released on Wednesday, according to media reports. The Times of Israel, citing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, reported that the affected families of the hostages had been notified, but did not give an exact number. It would be the sixth group of hostages to be released from Islamist violence during a break in fighting.
In return for the release of the twelve hostages on Tuesday evening, Israel released another group of Palestinians from Israeli prisons. All 30 prisoners have been released from various prisons, the Israeli prison authority said. According to this information, there were 15 female prisoners, some still young, and 15 male minors, the youngest of whom was 14 years old. The Palestinian prisoners who have been released so far were convicted of knife attacks on Israelis, arson and attacks with firebombs or stones.
Before the ceasefire expired, the group of seven economically strong democracies (G-7) spoke out on Wednesday night in favor of an extension of the agreement and called for the release of all hostages. “If there are longer pauses that go beyond these two days, then you know we are in favor of it and we will continue to work on it,” said United States National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby. The US government wants all hostages to be released. The G-7 foreign ministers of the USA, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Great Britain and Canada called for the same.
Washington hopes that more hostages with US citizenship will be released, said Kirby. So far, a four-year-old American girl who witnessed the murder of her parents in the Hamas massacre has been among those released. The government believes two additional women with U.S. citizenship are being held. Another seven with a US passport are missing – it is not clear whether they are among the hostages.
Despite the ongoing ceasefire, Netanyahu reiterated the goal of military destruction of Hamas. He did not say how long the ceasefire might last. “We have agreed that the women and children and the foreign hostages will be released first. After that happens, we will continue the fighting,” Netanyahu told Welt TV in an interview published on Tuesday. Hamas has committed the worst murders and will do so once more, said the conservative head of government. “We have no choice at all but to destroy Hamas,” he said. Israel will continue to do everything possible to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip as much as possible. However, according to Hamas, almost 15,000 people have been killed and around 36,000 injured there. Another 7,000 residents of the coastal strip are missing.
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