Another 17 people were freed by Hamas on Sunday in the third day of hostage releases, including the first with US citizenship: a four-year-old girl whose parents were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Abigail Idan, one of three hostages with American citizenship, was initially in the hands of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Hamas militants killed her parents at their home on the Kfar Aza kibbutz near the Gaza border.
“One of our fellow Americans, a little girl named Abigail turned 4 years old — she spent her birthday, that birthday and at least 50 days before that held hostage by Hamas,” US President Joe Biden said in Nantucket, the Massachusetts island where he spent the holidays. “She’s free and she’s in Israel now.”
“What she endured is unthinkable,” he added.
The total number of people released to the care of the Red Cross included 13 Israelis, three foreign nationals and an individual carrying a Russian passport, in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners, said Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari. Unlike the previous two nights, the hostages were released in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
The foreign nationals were from Thailand, according to Qatar. Earlier, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he had “reason to believe” at least one American citizen would be among those released.
Talks are continuing to extend the four-day cease-fire as more humanitarian aid trucks headed into Gaza on Sunday, including northern areas.
“We are making every effort to return our hostages, and we will return them all,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
The prime minister office said earlier it had received a list of names of abductees whom Hamas was due to hand over on Sunday. The Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza freed a total of 26 Israelis, some with dual nationalities, as well as 14 Thai nationals and one Filipino citizen on Friday and Saturday.
The releases made in several stages are key to a deal brokered by Qatar and Egypt that’s brought a pause of fighting in the more than six-week war, and allowed the flow of further humanitarian aid into besieged Gaza.
Separately on Sunday, Hamas said it would release a dual Israeli-Russian hostage “in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin and in appreciation of the Russian position in support of the Palestinian cause.” That individual appears to have been counted among the 14 Israeli detainees.
Lolwah Al-Khater, Qatar’s minister of state for international cooperation, told Al-Jazeera TV that work continues at the political level to extend the current truce, which has been scheduled to run for four days.
An hours-long delay to Saturday’s releases, blamed by Hamas on Israel, underscored the shakiness of the short-term truce. Hamas is designated by the US and European Union as a terrorist group. The militants infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting about 240 others.
Israel has unleashed its military might on the small, crowded Gaza Strip since the attack. At least 15,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The four-day truce is contingent on Hamas releasing a total of 50 hostages and Israel freeing 150 women and minors held in the nation’s prisons.
The humanitarian pause in Gaza has “largely held” since going into effect Friday, allowing the United Nations to boost the delivery of crucial aid into and across Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update.
All the same, the agency said many people still have no food - or fuel to cook it with - and bakeries aren’t operating, raising concerns about nutrition, especially in northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive. It also reported that Israeli forces had arrested some Palestinians traveling along the Israeli-designated safe “corridor” from the territory’s north to south.
Israel’s defense forces warned on Sunday that civilians in Gaza are prohibited from entering the sea or to approach within 1 kilometer of the border with Israel.
The defense ministry said Israel’s army has seized about 5 million shekels ($1.3 million) from Hamas during the ground invasion. Iraqi, Jordanian and US currencies have been found primarily in Hamas strongholds and suspects’ homes.
At least seven Palestinians were killed in a missile attack by Israeli forces on the occupied West Bank, the Voice of Palestine radio station reported. Israel’s army hasn’t commented on the events. Separately, Israeli missiles struck Syria’s international airport in Damascus, knocking it out of service, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
Read more: The West Bank Is Being Reshaped Along With Gaza Post-Oct. 7
Biden is expected to speak with Netanyahu on Sunday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Israel this week, a fourth visit since Oct. 7, according to local media.
The Qatari minister, who visited the Rafah border crossing on Sunday, said the pace of aid to the strip still isn’t enough to meet the level of need. Mahmoud al-Mordawi, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, says 300 trucks should enter northern Gaza Sunday and Monday to make up for shortfalls in recent days.
Author: Gwen Ackerman, Dana Khraiche and Galit Altstein