(The Age, 20/1/2025)
Please God all sides stick to it – Mark
Three Israeli hostages released from Gaza have been handed over to Israeli forces in the first test of a fragile ceasefire deal that has halted fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Live television pictures showed three female hostages leaving a vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas men. The hostages got into vehicles belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross as the crowd of fighters chanted the name of the armed wing of Hamas.
An Israeli official told Reuters the Red Cross had reported that the women were in good health. They were handed to the Israeli military a short time later.
Earlier, Hamas had identified the first three Israeli hostages as Romi Gonen, 24, Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Emily Damari, 28, who is also a British national.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, buses were awaiting the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention. Hamas said the first group to be freed in exchange for the hostages included 69 women and 21 teenage boys.
There are currently 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, not including detainees arrested in Gaza during the last 15 months of conflict, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
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