Hamas delay in releasing Israelis underscores fragility of Gaza pause

JERUSALEM – A temporary truce between Hamas and Israel held for a second day Saturday, but a challenge by Hamas to Israel’s implementation of the agreement delayed the planned release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners into the night, underscoring the fragility of the deal.

A day after the two sides successfully exchanged the first groups of captives, Hamas said Israel had violated the agreement and the group wouldn’t release more hostages until their concerns were addressed.

Later Saturday, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said the dispute had been resolved and the exchange would proceed. The agreement, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, provides for a four-day pause in the fighting to allow for the release of Israeli and Palestinian captives and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.

Hamas was expected to release the hostages at 4 p.m. local time. But two hours later, the militant group said it would not free them, alleging what it called “violations” by Israel.

Hamas spokesman Basem Naem told The Washington Post that Israel had violated the agreement because “the aid (Friday) did not reach the north” and “they didn’t abide by the standards of the release of Palestinian prisoners,” among other claims.

Israel did not respond to the announcement publicly.

Qatar held emergency talks with both sides and announced a settlement. Foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said 13 Israeli hostages would be freed Saturday in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners. Other officials gave different numbers of Palestinians. Israel has agreed to release three prisoners for each hostage Hamas frees.

Seven more hostages would be released “outside the framework” of the agreement, Al-Ansari added in a post on X. Their nationalities were unclear. He said Qatar and Egypt helped broker the agreement.

Hamas said only about half of the agreed-upon 200 aid trucks per day entered Gaza on Friday, a diplomat familiar with the situation told The Washington Post.

Spokespersons for the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees told The Post that the aid groups had not been able to reach some areas in northern Gaza. They did deliver some aid there Saturday, including from a convoy of 59 mostly Red Crescent trucks.

Israel has declared some parts of the north to be military areas, preventing aid groups from entering, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokeswoman for the Red Crescent in Ramallah in the West Bank.

“Our paramedics and ambulances are still completely prevented access to many areas and so we are unable to reach those injured in the last three weeks, if they are still alive,” Farsakh said. “We were hoping that we would be given safe access to those areas.”

The releases Saturday were expected to follow a pattern similar to that on Friday, when 13 hostages were taken from Gaza to Egypt to be flown to Israel and at least 33 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons and bused into the West Bank. The International Committee of the Red Cross is facilitating releases on both sides.

Under the agreement, three Palestinians are to be freed for every Israeli hostage, for a total of 50 hostages and 150 Palestinians. Most of them on both sides are women and children.

Separately Friday, Hamas released 10 Thai and one Filipino national, foreign workers who were kidnapped along with Israelis when militants streamed out of Gaza on Oct. 7 to attack Israeli towns. Iran claimed it had negotiated their release. No Americans were freed.

Videos and photographs released to Israeli media by the Schneider Children’s Medical Center east of Tel Aviv, where some hostages were taken, showed joyful reunions with families on Saturday.

One video shows 9-year-old Ohad Munder, freed with his mother and grandmother, spotting his father and running into his arms. The boy’s stepfather remains in Gaza.

A photograph shows 5-year old Emilia Aloni, freed with her mother, hugging her grandmother.

Videos posted on social media showed similarly joyful scenes in the West Bank, where Palestinian women and children freed by Israel were reunited with their families.

The pause, which started at 7 a.m. Friday, brought a momentary if tense calm to a conflict that has devastated both sides. Hamas and other fighters killed at least 1,200 people in 22 Israeli communities in their surprise attack on Oct. 7 and took another 240 hostage. Israel responded with a military campaign that has caused the deaths of more than 13,300 people in Gaza and displaced an estimated 1.7 million – 80% of the population.

The break also provided an opportunity to increase the volume of much-needed fuel and other humanitarian aid delivered to Gaza’s 2.2 million civilians, who have been under a near-total siege since Oct. 7. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it received 196 truckloads of aid on Friday.

World leaders have expressed hope that the pause may be extended. “The chances are real,” President Biden said Friday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he spent Thanksgiving. “So far it’s gone well.”

Egypt is engaged in intensive talks with Palestinians and Israelis for an extension of the temporary truce to allow for the release of a greater number of hostages, government spokesman Diaa Rashwan said.

But it was unclear whether Israel would be willing to extend the pause. Israeli military leaders said Saturday they were committed to resuming attacks inside the Gaza Strip after the temporary break.

“The time frame for the pause is short,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to troops in Gaza. “Any further negotiations will be held under fire.”

The Israel Defense Forces was using the pause to prepare for “the next phases of the war,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday. Commanders have stressed that the conflict is not over; the goal of their campaign is to eradicate Hamas from Gaza.

For the families of the estimated 190 hostages not covered by the deal, the releases have been bittersweet. Noam Peri’s 79-year-old father isn’t coming home, but she received good news.

“I can tell you this morning that we have a sign of life from my father,” Peri said. “We know he’s alive from other people from the community who were released yesterday.”

But his health is frail and she worries he won’t be able to survive much longer in captivity. The news that he is alive “brings a lot of hope,” she said, but more hostages must be freed urgently. “We don’t know how much time they’re going to be able to hold on there.”

Conditions for people in Gaza remain miserable. Hundreds of thousands of people living in the northern part of the enclave have crowded into the south to shelter in tents, abandoned buildings and, in some cases, the open air.

“We still suffer,” said Hazem Emad Susi, 49, who fled his home in Gaza City for the south.

“There are no bombardments, but we have no electricity, struggle to get water, food, medicine and communicate with our beloved family and friends. … Nobody knows what will come after this little window of quietness.”

The first 13 Israeli hostages released were reported on Saturday to be medically stable after 49 days in captivity by the two hospitals that admitted them. They included four children, their three mothers, and a grandmother who were transferred to Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva.

Five elderly women, who were released without other members of their family, were taken to Wolfson Medical Center south of Tel Aviv, where they received similar treatment, the hospital said.