The steadfastness of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, keeps hope alive for a second exchange of Palestinian hostages and prisoners

Tel Aviv – like fragile Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Entering its sixth day, the group designated as a terrorist group by the United States and Israel on Friday released the names of the next four Israeli hostages it says it will release on Saturday, in exchange for another 200 Palestinian detainees currently held in Israeli prisons. The hostages mentioned by Hamas are all female Israeli soldiers, in line with a statement made by a Hamas official earlier in the week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed in a brief statement that it had received the list of hostages from Hamas on Friday, but did not immediately confirm the identities of the female soldiers expected to return to Israel on Saturday.

There are currently seven Israeli women still detained in Gaza, including five IDF soldiers and two civilians. One of the civilians is Erbil Yehud, who was kidnapped in the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz. Her last horrific message to her partner, Ariel Kunio, who escaped, was: “We are in a horror movie.”

The other is Sherri Bibas, who was kidnapped with her two young children, Ariel and Kfir. Hamas claimed that Sherry, Ariel and Kfir were later killed in an Israeli bombing. In a television interview in June, then-Israeli Minister Benny Gantz indicated that the government was aware of what happened to the Bibas family, but said it could not provide details.

A Hamas official said that it was under conditions cease-fire Under the agreement, for every female Israeli soldier released, Israel must release 30 prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, and an additional 20 prisoners sentenced to long sentences.

Netanyahu’s office said that he will publish later Friday a list of the names of the Palestinians he intends to release in the upcoming exchange deal. Most of them are expected to be women, as were about 90 prisoners who were released in the first exchange on January 19, hours after the ceasefire agreement took effect.

Release Hamas The first three hostages A week ago – three Israeli women, including a dual British citizen – appeared in photos broadcast around the world. Red Cross vehicles were seen for the first time heading towards Gaza City before sunset, an indication that the deal was on the right track. In one of the largest squares in Gaza City, the door of a Hamas car opened, and Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, rushed toward the waiting Red Cross car as masked, heavily armed Hamas gunmen climbed into the cars and stormed them. Cars. Thousands of spectators watched it.

If the following four Israelis are released as expected on Saturday, 89 hostages — alive and dead — will remain in Gaza, according to Israeli officials, including seven dual U.S. citizens: Keith Siegel, 65, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Sagi Dekel Chen, 35, who grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut; and Aidan Alexander, 19, of Tenafly, New Jersey.

It is believed that four other Americans were killed during the 15-month-old war.

The ceasefire in Gaza has been tested, but it is holding

In Gaza, a ceasefire was established Tested with isolated violence This week, but it was held.

An Israeli tank shelling killed two Palestinians on Thursday, the first bloodshed since the air strikes stopped on Sunday morning. The Israeli army said that its forces in southern Gaza opened fire on masked men and suspected militants who were moving towards the forces and posing a threat. The Israeli army said that the incident occurred east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, and in the area of ​​the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel, through which some aid trucks are now delivering food, water and medical supplies.

The United Nations says more than 650 trucks carrying food and other humanitarian supplies entered Gaza on Thursday, slightly more than the 600 trucks per day agreed upon in the ceasefire agreement.

Dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans are eagerly awaiting next weekend, preparing to begin returning freely to the devastated northern Strip, as was also agreed to in the deal. A grim indication of what lies ahead has already been detected by those who have returned to their homes, or what remains of them, in the South.

The returnees have found entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, and even without the heavy machinery they really need, they have begun the work of rebuilding and the difficult task of finding and exhuming the remains of their loved ones. Nearly 200 bodies have been found since Sunday, but the Civil Defense Agency in the Hamas-run enclave estimates that more than 10,000 bodies are likely still under the rubble, and accepts that some may never be found.

In Rafah, Muhammad Mustafa Hamad Qeshta told the CBS News Gaza team on Wednesday that an Israeli military strike killed his brother Ibrahim 261 days ago.

“We took him out today with a broom,” he shouted. “The entire house collapsed and fell on him. We called Civil Defense to ask for help to retrieve his body. They kept saying they would do it, but it was late, and we want to get his body out. We decided to dig.” We take it out ourselves and take it out. I called my friends and we agreed to come here after the morning prayer and cooperate, and after we dug a lot and carried a lot of stones, we found his green jacket, so the family called to tell them that we had found him.”

Ibrahim’s mother, Samira Masoud Al-Shaer, told CBS News she was glad the matter was at least closed.

She said: “I am happy, and these are tears of joy.” “I am happy that I found him. This is the best moment. I was waiting for the ceasefire so I could see him. This is the best moment of my life. Thank God the wall fell on him and we were able to find the whole body.” The dogs did not eat it.”

While the Gaza ceasefire has held, the Israeli military redirected its focus and firepower this week toward what it says are Iranian-backed militants in the West Bank, the larger Palestinian territory that Israel has long occupied.

Israel Defense Forces Launching Operation “Iron Wall” On Tuesday, a day after President Trump rescinded a Biden-era executive order that imposed sanctions on some Israeli settlers in the West Bank who were deemed a threat to peace and security.

At least a dozen Palestinians have been killed and dozens injured since the IDF offensive began, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank.

On Friday, the United Nations condemned what it described as Israel’s use of “war fighting” methods in the West Bank operation.