In the “starting phase” of the hostage deal, Hamas agreed to release 50 women and children.
The United States, Washington, DC. In Washington, DC, on November 14, 2023, people who support Israel held a rally that protested racial bias and demanded the release of Israeli prisoners. Thousands of people, both Palestinian and Israeli, have died since October 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip attacked southern Israel in a way that had never been done before. This led to Israel declaring war on Hamas and bombing Gaza in response.
The U.S. and Israel have reached a historic agreement with Hamas to free 50 women and children who are being held prisoners. The deal was officially announced after two months of heated world talks. In exchange for the deal, the fighting will stop for four days so that prisoners can be moved safely and help can be sent to Gaza. A full list has not been given by Hamas, which has caused more concerns. The U.S. is expecting more prisoners to be released. At some point, the goal is to get all the prisoners back to their families.
Israel extends the helping pause by one day for every ten prisoners who are freed. After Hamas kidnapped more than 200 people on October 7, the terrible attack killed at least 1,200 people, some of whom were passersby. The hostages are women, children, Israeli soldiers, people with dual citizens, and people from other countries. Recent Israeli video shows that Hamas is responsible for forcing hostages to go through al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
In the first part of the deal, three Americans will be freed. One of them is Liz Hirsh Naftali, a three-year-old orphan. As the fighting slows down, there are higher chances that more relief aid will be able to pass through the Rafah crossing. This would help Gaza’s critical shortages caused by Israeli bombings. The report also puts light on the situation of ten Americans who haven’t been seen or heard from since Biden took office.
Brett McGurk of the National Security Council stressed that Hamas wanted help for Gaza as part of the deal. Israel decided to let Palestinian girls and women who were being held in its jails go home. It was very important that Qatar and Egypt acted as agents and helped US, Israeli, and Hamas leaders negotiate.
The top U.S. official told reporters on Tuesday that soon after Hamas attacked Israel, a secret cell was set up to get the prisoners freed, and it became clear how many people the group had been holding hostage. The United States and Israel and Qatar began talking about how to free the prisoners. Over the course of the last month and a half, the U.S., Israel, Qatar, and Egypt have been on calls every day, sometimes every hour. Biden has been directly involved in these calls. They have a careful sense of hope that they are nearing the end of what has been a very painful five-week journey.
The deal is a big step forward in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which started almost seven weeks ago when Hamas broke through Israel’s border in the Gaza Strip. During rocket attacks, Hamas terrorists killed people all over Israel for no clear reason. Over 200 people, including Israeli troops and residents, were taken hostage. John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said on Tuesday that the U.S. does not know how many prisoners are being held or who is holding them.
On a phone conversation with reporters, John Kirby reminded reporters that other organizations may possess hostages that Hamas may not know about. Benjamin Netanyahu has sworn to destroy Hamas, and Israel began a violent air attack throughout Gaza targeting Hamas terrorists and forces. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health believes that 13,000 Palestinians died in the disaster. While Hamas does not specify how many of those slain are its own members, more than 5,000 children are thought to have died, and a senior U.S. official suggested a larger number of deaths.
Israel also says that shooting from Gaza, either by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or other groups, has sometimes hit residential areas on the other side of the strip. Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel would not give up its war against Hamas, even though it agreed to a break so that prisoners could be freed.
President Biden has supported Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip. He said that he agrees with Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas’s military equipment so that the terror group can’t do another attack like the one on October 7. But the president and his top aides are becoming more and more worried that Israel can do more to protect civilians in Gaza.
In a call with reporters on Tuesday, Kirby said that the administration has said they don’t support an expanded Israeli military ground campaign into southern Gaza until the Israelis come up with a clear plan for how they’re going to protect what is now a dramatically larger civilian population.
In a statement, Kirby stressed how important it was for the Israelis to make sure the safety of the people who followed their orders to move to the south before operations began. He stated that the Israelis needed to take steps to make sure that these people would be safe as well. Kirby ended by saying that this covers the main points he wanted to make about this issue.
