Hamas released eight Israeli hostages Thursday in Gaza under an extension of a truce, and a short time later Israel released 30 Palestinian prisoners as negotiators tried to again extend the pause in fighting.
Two women were released in the afternoon and six more were released shortly before midnight. It was the seventh group of hostages released under the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel.
Israel initially required the militant group to release at least 10 hostages daily for the truce to continue, but a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that no additional hostages would be released on Thursday. Qatar helped broker the truce.
The Qatari spokesperson said Israel accepted the eight hostages because Hamas on Wednesday released an extra two hostages, who were Israeli Russian women.
Hamas had indicated that it could free two more Israeli Russian citizens, but the militant group ultimately did not do so. Hamas had also previously said it would release the bodies of three Israeli hostages on Thursday, but it was unclear whether that occurred.
In turn, Israel released 30 Palestinians from prisons in Israel.
To date, Hamas has released 105 hostages and Israel has released 240 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., U.K, European Union and others.
Qatar and Egypt have played key roles in negotiating the truces, with Egypt saying the two Arab countries would now try to prolong the cease-fire another two days beyond Thursday. But with most of the women and children held by Hamas apparently already freed, negotiations over the release of Israeli male soldiers and civilians held by Hamas and Palestinian combatants jailed by Israel is likely to prove more difficult.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv on Thursday. At the start of the meeting, Blinken told Herzog the United States believed the truce was producing results and should continue.
“We have seen over the last week the very positive development of hostages coming home, being reunited with their families, and that should continue today,” Blinken said. “It’s also enabled a significant increase in humanitarian assistance to go to innocent civilians in Gaza, who need it desperately.”
In his statement, Herzog said an attack by two Palestinian gunmen Thursday morning in Jerusalem, which killed at least four people and injured several others, was an example of “the endless war” that Israel is “fighting against terror organizations, especially Hamas, in these very complicated and challenging times.”
Hard-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said at the site of the attack, "This event proves again how we must not show weakness, that we must speak to Hamas only through [rifle] scopes, only through war."
Hamas said the attackers, both of whom were killed by Israeli authorities, were its members, acting "as a natural response to unprecedented crimes conducted by the occupation."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with Blinken and said he told the top U.S. diplomat that the Thursday attackers represented “the same Hamas that perpetrated the terrible massacre on October 7, and the same Hamas that is trying to murder us everywhere.”
“I told him, ‘We have sworn, I have sworn, to eliminate Hamas. Nothing will stop us,’” Netanyahu said. “We will continue this war until we achieve the three goals: freeing all of our hostages, completely eliminating Hamas, and ensuring that no threat like this will ever come from Gaza again."
The Israeli leader ordered the homes of the two Palestinian gunmen sealed and demolished.
At a news conference late Thursday, Blinken said, "Hamas cannot remain in control of Gaza. It cannot retain the capacity to repeat that carnage. That was only underscored by this morning's appalling terrorist attack on people waiting at a bus stop in Jerusalem, which killed three Israeli civilians and wounded at least six others, including two American citizens. Hamas has claimed responsibility for that attack. It called its perpetrators heroic." A fourth person has since died.
In his talks with Netanyahu, the U.S. State Department said Blinken reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas attacks but “urged Israel to take every possible measure to avoid civilian harm.”
Blinken later met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, with the State Department saying they discussed the “urgent need for measures to improve security and freedom for Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza and subsequent ground offensive has leveled hundreds of buildings, and according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, the actions have killed more than 15,000 people, with another 6,500 missing, possibly buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, had approved plans for “the continuation of the fighting” in Gaza after the pauses end.
The original Israel-Hamas truce called for four days of Israel pausing its campaign to eradicate Hamas, with Hamas releasing 50 hostages it seized during an attack on Israel last month and Israel freeing 150 Palestinian prisoners. The pause also allowed for increased humanitarian aid to reach the battered Gaza Strip.
A two-day extension was added under the terms of Hamas releasing 10 more hostages per day and Israel freeing additional prisoners.
The six-day truce has brought Gaza its first respite after six weeks of intensive Israeli aerial bombardment and a ground offensive prompted by the Hamas attack.
With the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the United Nations estimates 1.8 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, with many staying in overcrowded shelters. Shelter Network, a U.N.-led aid consortium, said in a report last Friday that more than 60% of Gaza’s housing stock had been damaged or destroyed.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said the Gaza Strip was in the middle of an "epic humanitarian catastrophe." He and others called for a full cease-fire to replace the temporary truces. But Israel has rejected a permanent cease-fire as benefiting Hamas, a position backed by the United States.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
