KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — (AP) — Eight more hostages were freed from the Gaza Strip by Hamas-led militants on Thursday in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly delayed Israel's release of 110 Palestinian prisoners and underscored the fragility of the ceasefire that began earlier this month.
The exchange of hostages for prisoners is a key part of a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. Fifteen hostages and hundreds of prisoners have been released so far, and militants still hold dozens more hostages abducted in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.
Also on Thursday, Hamas confirmed the death of Mohammed Deif, head of its military wing and one of the alleged masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack. Israel said six months ago he was killed in an airstrike in Gaza.
Israelis rejoiced as images of the freed hostages reuniting with their families were shown live on TV — and then replayed throughout the day and night. In downtown Tel Aviv, crowds of people gathered outside the hospitals where hostages were taken to cheer — and cry — at the sight of the incoming ambulances.
Earlier, masked and armed militants freed three Israelis —- after first parading them through unruly crowds in Gaza — as well as five Thai nationals, who were working on farms in southern Israel when the deadliest attack in the country's history took place.
There was a different joyous homecoming on the other side of the divide. Scores of Palestinians thronged the buses carrying released prisoners into the West Bank city of Ramallah. Some offered wreaths of flowers in the colors of the Palestinian flag and warm jackets to cover the men hoisted on the shoulders of supporters.
Shortly before, Palestinians threw stones outside the prison and Israeli forces fired tear gas in an effort to clear the area.
The release of prisoners came hours after militants in Gaza held off thousands of boisterous Palestinian onlookers as they handed hostages over to the Red Cross.
Hamas released seven of the hostages in front of the destroyed home of its slain leader, Yahya Sinwar, as crowds pressed in. The militant group called it a "message of determination," but it nearly derailed this month's third swap of hostages for prisoners and triggered the latest in a series of disputes that have tested the durability of the truce.
The first hostage — female soldier Agam Berger, 20 — was released after Hamas paraded her in front of a smaller crowd in the heavily destroyed urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Hours later, at a handover of the other seven in the southern city of Khan Younis, hundreds of militants from Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group arrived with a convoy.
Footage showed hostage Arbel Yehoud, 29, looked stunned as masked militants hustled her through the shouting crowd, pushing people back. Also released were Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man, and the five Thai laborers. Both Yehoud and Moses are dual German-Israeli nationals.
The scenes of the hostages being marched through seemingly hostile crowds in Gaza was unnerving for Israelis who became vicarious participants in the hostages’ ordeals. Netanyahu condemned the “shocking scenes” and called on international mediators to ensure the safety of hostages in future releases — a commitment he said he later received.
Israel identified the Thai hostages released as: Watchara Sriaoun, 33; Pongsak Thaenna, 36; Sathian Suwannakham, 35; Surasak Rumnao, 32; and Bannawat Saethao, 27. Thai officials said they appeared to be in good health.
Yehoud had been at the center of a dispute earlier this week over the sequence in which the hostages would be released. Mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar resolved it with an agreement that Yehoud would be released with the others on Thursday.
About 20 of her friends gathered in southern Israel watched as the tense scene unfolded on live television. They cried after Yehoud was turned over to the Red Cross.
Moses looked stunned as he was led by Israeli soldiers to reunite with his family. Footage released by the Israeli military showed his relatives bursting into the room to embrace him. His daughter exclaimed repeatedly, “my father, my father!”
Among the Palestinian prisoners who were released, 30 were serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis; seven were allowed to return to the occupied West Bank, but the rest were being transferred to Egypt before further deportation.
Palestinians view the prisoners released as heroes who have sacrificed for the cause of ending Israel’s decades-long occupation of lands they want for a future state.
As Red Cross buses approached, the families of Palestinian prisoners caught their first glimpses of their loved ones through the windshields, some shattered in the melee of stone-throwing and tear gas-firing.
Zakaria Zubeidi — a prominent former militant leader and theater director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 before being rearrested days later — was beaming, wrapped in a Palestinian checkered keffiyeh and surrounded by whistling and cheering crowds. He wept as he pulled his relatives into hugs.
“The treatment in prison was harsh, but these masses of people made us forget the suffering of 22 years,” said Ali Farajallah, who was released after 22 years behind bars for his role in attacks against Israelis.
Rights groups have described harsh treatment in Israeli jails since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Arab television networks cut into livestreams of the Palestinian prisoner release to carry a press conference held by Hamas to confirm the death of Deif and four other members.
The confirmation dealt, at least symbolically, a powerful blow to the militant group, particularly since the elusive Deif was considered iconic among Hamas fighters for surviving multiple assassination attempts.
Israel had previously announced each of the five deaths confirmed on Thursday.
Hamas' confirmation comes as the group reasserts itself as Gaza's dominant political force despite the Israeli military’s stated goal of destroying and dislodging it. Earlier this week, Hamas militants welcomed Palestinians returning home to northern Gaza.
A total of 33 hostages will be released from Gaza in the first, six-week phase of the ceasefire, including women, children, older adults and sick or wounded men. Nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners will be freed in exchange. Israel says Hamas has confirmed that eight of the hostages to be released in this phase are dead.
Israeli forces have pulled back from most of Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return to what remains of their homes and humanitarian groups to surge assistance.
The deal calls for Israel and Hamas to negotiate a second phase in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages and the ceasefire would continue indefinitely. The war could resume in early March if an agreement is not reached.
Israel says it is still committed to destroying Hamas, even after the militant group reasserted its rule over Gaza within hours of the truce. A key far-right partner in Netanyahu's coalition is already calling for the war to resume after the ceasefire's first phase.
Hamas says it won't release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
In the Oct. 7 attack that started the war, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's ensuing air and ground war, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were militants.
The Israeli military says it killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in dense residential neighborhoods and put military infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.
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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and DeBre from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Joseph Krauss in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.
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