A drone view shows people gathering near Red Cross vehicles, on the day of the release of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on February 15, 2025
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The first bus carrying freed Palestinian prisoners and detainees departed Israeli jail Ofer in the West Bank, live footage showed.

Some 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released on Saturday (February 15, 2025) after Hamas handed over Israeli hostages Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Sasha Troufanov to the Red Cross after mediation efforts by Egypt and Qatar succeeded in helping maintain a fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that has halted fighting for almost a month.

Wearing traditional keffiyeh scarves, the freed prisoners were hoisted on the crowd’s shoulders and hugged relatives before heading to a quick health checkup, an AFP journalist reported.

(More details to follow)

The fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas has been marred by violence, with at least 115 people killed in Gaza, including 28 children and 31 women, and over 265 injured, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense agency.

The hours surrounding the ceasefire deal were deemed “the bloodiest day in the past week” for Gaza, Basal noted, per NBC. Despite the ceasefire announcement, Israel continued bombing Gaza, killing Palestinian civilians and sparking widespread condemnation.

The United Nations’ Human Rights Council denounced the strikes, saying “we are dismayed that shortly after the deal was announced, Israel continued bombing Gaza indiscriminately, killing Palestinian civilians despite expectations of calm until the ceasefire takes effect”.

The council urged all parties to accept the Gaza ceasefire deal to end “15 months of immense and terrible suffering in Gaza.” The Israeli government’s vote on the deal, held on Friday, will determine the fate of the ceasefire, with the possibility of it taking effect as early as Sunday.

However, the situation remains dire, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday that they carried out strikes on approximately 50 targets across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, military compounds, and weapons storage facilities, “over the last day”.

The 15-month offensive in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of over 46,500 people, including thousands of children, according to local health officials. The international community, including the UN Secretary-General, has welcomed the ceasefire deal as a “critical first step” towards ending the conflict.

As the situation in Gaza continues to unfold, the world watches with bated breath, hoping for a lasting peace. The ceasefire deal, brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the US, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase, including the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

However, the road to peace is long and arduous, with deep-seated historical roots that need to be addressed.

On Thursday, in a video captured by NBC News, the bodies of four young children lay lifeless on the ground, shrouded alongside the corpses of other victims at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital. Witnesses said they were killed in the string of airstrikes launched by the IAF.

“They were sleeping happily with the news of the truce,” one man told the crew. Then “the Israeli airplanes shelled us.”

Five people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, the medics reported. File
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

At least 10 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza early on Thursday (December 26, 2024), medics with the Gaza Health authorities said.

Five people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, the medics reported. They warned the death toll could rise as many remained trapped under the rubble.

In a separate incident, five journalists were killed when their vehicle was struck in the vicinity of Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, the enclave’s health authorities said. The journalists worked for the Al-Quds Al-Youm television channel.

Palestinian media and local reporters said the vehicle was marked as a media van and was used by journalists to report from inside the hospital and Nuseirat camp.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the reported strikes.

On Wednesday (December 25, 2024), Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel traded blame over their failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.

Doha:

Qatar is “hopeful” of a Gaza war ceasefire and is pushing for an agreement before Ramadan, its foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The gas-rich Gulf state, which hosts Hamas’s political bureau, has been a key mediator in negotiations involving the Palestinian militants, Israel, the United States and Egypt.

“We remain hopeful, not necessarily optimistic, that we can announce something today or tomorrow, but we remain hopeful that we can get to some kind of agreement,” Majed al-Ansari told a regular briefing.

“Obviously, we said that Ramadan is going to be a point of contention, it’s going to be a point of confrontation, that we are going to push for a pause before the beginning of Ramadan.

“We are all aiming towards that target, but the situation is still fluid on the ground,” he added.

Ansari was speaking after US President Joe Biden said a new ceasefire and hostage release could start as soon as Monday, ahead of the Muslim holy month that will begin around March 11.

“Till now we don’t have an agreement, we are still working on the negotiations on all sides,” Ansari said.

Israel’s air, land and sea war against Hamas in retaliation for its deadly October 7 attacks on southern Israel has killed at least 29,878 people, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says.

Hamas attacked rural communities and military posts bordering the Gaza Strip, leaving at least 1,160 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Some 250 hostages were taken, of whom 130 are still in Gaza, although about 30 are thought to be dead, Israel says.

A one-week pause in fighting in November saw more than 100 hostages released, including 80 Israelis who were freed in exchange for some 240 Palestinians jailed in Israel.

Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators met in Doha on Sunday for talks also attended by Israeli and Hamas representatives, state-linked Egyptian media said.

The Doha talks followed a meeting in Paris, without Hamas, where representatives “came to an understanding among the four of them about what the basic contours of a hostage deal for temporary ceasefire would look like”, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)