1st step to peace: Hamas frees 24 hostages, Israel releases 39 Palestinians

NT Bureau, Agencies

Tel Aviv/Gaza City: Acrucial four-day cease-fire in the Irael-Hamas war began Friday in Gaza as part of an agreement that Qatar helped broker.

Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners on Friday, the first of a total of 150 Palestinian prisoners to be freed under the cease-fire while Hamas released 24 hostages including 13 Israeli citizens, 10 Thai citizens and one Filipino citizen, Qatar said.

With the truce deal comes increased shipments of fuel and supplies into Gaza — though only enough to barely meet the needs of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who have endured weeks of Israeli bombardment, according to aid groups.

Israel has agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 liters (34,300 gallons) of fuel a day into besieged Gaza for humanitarian needs for the duration of the truce.

More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza after a days-long pause in its casualty report, which it attributed to the health system’s collapse in northern Gaza making it impossible to provide a detailed count.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has described the release of the first hostages as an “important first step”.

Posting to social media, he said Israel would “continue and do everything necessary” to bring the remaining hostages in Gaza home.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians and wounded 11 others on Friday as they headed toward northern Gaza. An AP journalist saw the two bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital in Deir al-Balah in the south Gaza.

The injured were shot in the legs. The shooting took place as hundreds of Palestinians who sought refuge in southern Gaza were trying to head back to the north.