The militant group Hamas has released 25 Israeli and Thai hostages seized during the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, the first to be freed under a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that appeared to be taking hold.
Thirteen Israeli women and child hostages had been transferred to the Red Cross and were on their way to a border crossing with Egypt, according to Israeli media reports.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, meanwhile, announced on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that 12 Thai hostages had also been released.
Thai embassy officials were on their way to pick up the hostages, and that their names and other details would be released afterward, he said.
The two hostage releases on Nov 24 were negotiated separately, with Qatar mediating between Israel and Hamas, and Iran aiding Thailand in its talks with Hamas.
Earlier reports said the Israeli hostages would be released to the Red Cross and an Egyptian security delegation that travelled to Gaza on Nov 23, then taken out through Egypt for transfer to Israel, Egyptian security sources said.
Israel will release 39 Palestinians prisoners – 24 women and 15 teenagers – in the occupied West Bank, in exchange for the 13 hostages freed from Gaza, a Palestinian official said.
The authorities in Tel Aviv are now gearing up for the complex task of helping those returning home from a nearly seven-week hostage ordeal that may have left them deeply traumatised.
Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct 7, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to an Israeli count, and seizing about 240 hostages.
Israel has vowed to “crush” Hamas in response and unleashed a withering military campaign that Gaza’s Hamas government says has killed nearly 15,000 people in the coastal territory.
“We hope the picture will be beautiful at the end of the day,” Mr Ziv Agmon, legal adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told reporters, saying Israel would “follow the agreement” but could not speak for Hamas.
“With a terrorist organisation like Hamas, everything that happens in the coming days is a miracle,” he said.
Journalists saw Israeli tanks moving away from Gaza at the northern end as the truce began at 7am (1pm in Singapore) on Nov 24, and aid trucks rolling in from Egypt at the southern end.
There was no sound of Israeli air force activity above northern Gaza, nor any of the contrails typically left by Palestinian rocket fire.
Hamas confirmed on its Telegram channel that all hostilities from its forces would cease.
