Nov. 25 (UPI) — A group of 17 hostages, including four Thai nationals, held by Hamas were released to the Red Cross on Saturday and are in Israel, the government said.
The 13 Israeli hostages range in age from 3 to 67 and will make their way to Israeli hospitals, where they will be reunited with their families, Israel Defense Forces said on X. Among them was a 9-year-old Irish-Israeli girl who was abducted on Oct. 7.
Earlier, Israel and Hamas agreed to move forward with releasing more hostages and continuing aid to Gaza after an hours-long dispute threatened to disintegrate the fragile deal.
The Qatari government, which is mediating discussions, said 39 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons will be exchanged for 13 Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
“Those released from Israeli prisons will include 33 children and 6 women, while those released from Gaza will include 8 children and 5 women, in addition to 7 foreigners,” said Majed Al Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hamas said it decided to delay the hostage swap after Israel sent fewer than half of the agreed-upon aid trucks to Gaza, spokesman Osama Hamdan said.
“The total number of aid trucks that have reached (Gaza) yesterday and today is 340 aid trucks. Only 65 trucks have reached the northern part of the strip, which is less than half of what was agreed on,” Hamdan said earlier Saturday.
If the hostage transfer is completed late Saturday, the latest exchange would come a day after 13 Israeli hostages and 12 Thai nationals were released as part of the limited negotiated pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas — the first since hostilities began on Oct. 7.
The Hebrew-language Ynet News reported late Saturday afternoon local time the planned exchange remained on track but had been delayed due to “technical reasons.”
Earlier in the day, the Israeli Defense Forces announced that 200 trucks operated by international aid organizations entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on Friday, passing into the besieged territory through after a security check at the Nitsana crossing.
The trucks contained food, water, shelter and equipment, as well as diesel fuel and cooking gas, the IDF said.
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a unit of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, said more than 50 additional humanitarian aid trucks operated by the United Nations had entered into the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
The operation is meant to reach Palestinian civilians who have not evacuated northern Gaza as demanded by the Israeli military before its ground assault into the area, COGAT said.
