Israel started releasing 110 Palestinian inmates after postponing the operation in retaliation for the thronging crowds at one of the hostage handover locations, while Hamas released three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza on Thursday.
In a dramatic scenario in the southern city of Khan Younis, 29-year-old Arbel Yehud was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led resistance campaign on Israel on October 7, 2023. She appeared terrified and found it difficult to move through the mob as armed militants handed her over to the Red Cross. According to Reuters.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, described the exchange as frightening in the midst of the thronging public and warned that anyone harming the captives could die.
Buses carrying some of the 110 Palestinian inmates who are anticipated to be released as part of the gradual arrangement that stopped violence in the battered coastal enclave earlier this month arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah later on Thursday.
According to Netanyahu and Israel Katz, the defense minister, the release of the captives has been postponed "until the safe exit of our hostages in the next phases is assured."
While some East Jerusalem inmates had already reached their families, others who were scheduled to be evacuated to Egypt or sent to Gaza had not yet arrived.
10 Palestinians killed in West Bank
Meanwhile, Israel's military confirmed on Thursday that it had killed 10 Palestinians in a strike on a village in the occupied West Bank.
During a joint "counterterrorism" operation by the military and domestic security agency, an air force "aircraft struck a gathering of armed terrorists in the area of Tamun" late Wednesday, the military said in a statement.
"Approximately 10 terrorists were eliminated in the strike," it said, adding two of the fighters killed were involved in an attack that claimed the life of an Israeli soldier and injured three others in Tamun on January 20.
