More hostages to be released from Gaza as Hamas aid row resolved by Qatar and Egypt

Qatar has said that “obstacles” to the release of more hostages held by Hamas inside Gaza have been resolved – and that 13 Israelis and seven foreign nationals should be freed tonight in exchange for 39 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

The release has been put back by several hours as Hamas’ armed wing said it has decided to delay the release until Israel “commits to allowing aid trucks to enter northern Gaza” – showing the fragile nature of a truce which took weeks of fraught negotiations.

The spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Majed Al-Ansari, said: “After a delay in implementing the release of prisoners from both sides, the obstacles were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian communications with both sides.

“Tonight 39 Palestinian women and children will be released in exchange for the release of 13 Israeli hostages from Gaza.”

In a statement, Hamas said it “upholds their appreciation towards Egypt and Qatar for ensuring the continuation of their temporary truce with Israel”.

Reports had circulated on Hamas-affiliated social media channels earlier accusing Israel of “tampering“ with the terms of the truce, including curtailing free movement of aid north and use of aircraft with is barred by the details of the agreement. Israeli sources said they did not violate the agreement.

A Hamas spokesperson had said a total of 340 aid trucks entered Gaza but only 65 reached north Gaza which was “less than half of what Israel agreed on”. The Palestine Red Crescent society had posted just an hour before the Hamas statement that it was able to deliver aid to Gaza city and the north gaza governorate in one of the “largest’ convoy since the start of the war.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees added that 196 trucks of aid entered on Friday, and Israel said four fuel trucks and four tanks of gas entered Saturday.

The hostage release and temporary ceasefire deal was agreed after weeks of tense negotiations, a breakthrough which saw Israeli families finally reunited and granted Palestinians civilians a rare moment of respite under ferocious Israeli bombing.

Israel has unleashed its heaviest bombardment yet of Gaza in retaliation for 7 October attack by Hamas on southern Israel, where militants killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage.

The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says Israel’s bombing of the besieged strip has killed than 14,000 people, including thousands of children. It has also levelled swathes of the besieged enclave – an unknown number of people remain trapped under the rubble.

On Friday the agreement appeared to continue comparatively smoothly with 13 Israelis released via Egypt, and 39 Palestinians detainees sent home from Israeli jails – alongside at least 200 trucks of aid entering the besieged strip.

Among the Israelis freed on Friday after almost 50 days in captivity in Gaza was nine-year-old Ohad Munder, who ran down a hospital corridor in Israel into his father’s open arms, footage released by Schneider children’s medical centre showed.

He and three other children released at the same time were in relatively good condition, Gilat Livni, the centre’s Director of Paediatrics told reporters.

“I dreamt we came home,” another hostage, four-year-old Raz Asher, said sitting in her father’s arms on a hospital bed after she and her mother and younger sister were freed. “Now the dream came true,” her father, Yoni, replied.

Under the agreement, a total of 50 hostages are to be exchanged for 150 Palestinians, all women and teenagers the youngest age jus 14, imprisoned in Israel.

Before the delay from Hamas in the latest hostage release, a Qatari delegation made an extremely rare trip to Israel on Saturday to ensure the deal continues to “move smoothy” and to discuss further details of the ongoing deal, one source told The Independent. Qatar and Israel formally do not have diplomatic relations highlighting the importance – and perhaps the stakes – of the visit. A Qatari jet was photographed landing in Tel Aviv.

Also on Saturday morning, COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit which coordinates with the Palestinians said that four tanks of fuel and four tanks of cooking gas were transferred via the Rafah crossing.

Palestinians civilians in Gaza told The Independent of “finally being to breathe” as the bombing stopped. Families walked for miles to try to get news of their relatives they were separated from in the fighting. Others sought to find and bury their dead as thousands of bodies are trapped under the rubble. Many shared videos of apocalyptic levels of destruction. But there were also videos shared of families going to the beach. “Men are going to hair salon, women are going out to get supplies, I can’t describe the calmness”, said Sara, 21.

There were even discussions of an extensions to the ceasefire with Egypt saying it “positive signals” of an extensions to the four-day truce in Gaza, just a few hours before the setback happened.

Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), said in a statement that Cairo was holding extensive talks with all parties to reach an agreement which would mean “the release of more detainees in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”

Israel has said the ceasefire could be extended if Hamas continues to release hostages at a rate of at least 10 per day. A Palestinian source has said up to 100 hostages could go free.

The families of the hostages said on Saturday that they were counting on deal could be extended allow the release of different categories of captives including men. So far only children, their mothers and the most vulnerable elderly women have been included on the lists.

“Getting everybody back alive and soon is the aim, alive and soon are connected to each other” said Noam Peri: daughter of Haim Peri, 79 who was kidnapped from his home in kibbutz Nir Oz and as man is not eligible for release right now. She said he had recently survived a heart attack and depended on medication to survive.

Ms Peris said she had “proof of life” for her father from Friday’s release of hostages who had been held with him, in “hard conditions underground”

“We don’t even know if he can stand where he is kept, it has been 50 days.”