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As Monday marks the fourth day of a temporary ceasefire between Israel Defense Forces and Hamas militants in occupied Palestine, both sides bargain for the release of captives and prisoners.
Since the truce began on Friday, 58 hostages have been released from Gaza.
In exchange, the Israeli government released 117 jailed Palestinian prisoners, most of them teenagers who haven’t been convicted of any crime.
On Monday, Hamas plans to release 11 more hostages in an agreement with Israel that will lead to a two-day extension in the temporary truce, Reuters reported, citing a senior Egyptian official.
The latest list of hostages include two mothers and nine children, according to the Jerusalem Post.
As of Sunday, the 58 hostages released so far include Israeli, Thai and other foreign national hostages–along with a four-year-old American-Israeli citizen. Their release comes seven weeks after intense Israeli bombings of Gaza that has led to the killing of over 14,000 Palestinians, with over 10,000 of them women and children.
Israel Defense Forces reluctantly agreed to the temporary ceasefire with Hamas Friday after weeks of pressure from world leaders, the United Nations, human rights groups, and millions around the world.
Israel leaders refused ceasefire for weeks
Notably, Hamas laid out terms for a nearly identical ceasefire plan with Israel weeks ago, but Israeli leaders refused. A Qatari mediator told Sky News on Oct. 26 all hostages could’ve been released if Israel agreed to a pause in the fighting.
“If there’s continuing bombing, if there’s continuing escalation in the situation, our task is getting more difficult. The mediators need a period of calm,” Qatar’s Minister of State and senior negotiator Mohmmed al Khulaifi said.
While Israeli leaders have classified the fighting as self-defense, its military has killed more Palestinians in a few weeks than the number of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russia in over two years of war, a New York Times analysis shows.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to eradicate the militant group for its unprecedented surprise attack on Oct. 7. Hamas fighters and members of other militant groups stormed Israeli neighborhoods in a land, air and sea assault that resulted in the killing of over 1,200 Israeli civilians. The fighters reportedly took 240 citizens hostage.
Netanyahu recently gave Elon Musk a tour of neighborhoods attacked by Hamas. On Monday, he held a live discussion with Musk, saying after the war he plans to “deradicalize” and “rebuild” Gaza.
“I’d like to help as well,” Musk responded.
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Tensions high amid temporary ceasefire in Gaza
Monday represents a precarious day as tensions around the world continue to swell. While Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the release of all hostages, his administration also fears the ceasefire will give Hamas more time to regroup, according to a report from Jerusalem Post.
Hamas, on the other hand, wants to ensure that Palestinian child prisoners won’t be released without their parents. Complicating problems is the fact that the Israeli government is demanding the release of hostages each day to extend the truce.
CNN previously reported that 40 to 50 of the hostages were taken by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas is reportedly still working to find them.
Tensions have spilled over into violence in the U.S.
On Sunday, police arrested a White gunman who shot and injured three Palestinian college students walking to a Thanksgiving dinner. The weekend shooting comes weeks after a White landlord stabbed his tenants, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy and her mother. The boy didn’t survive.
Meanwhile, an elderly pro-Israel protester died after an altercation with other protesters in Southern California in early November. Fears of increased hate crimes have gripped Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities around the nation.
Over the weekend, President Biden said the “chances are real” that the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could lead to a longer one. His comments come after weeks of refusing to call for a ceasefire, arguing he can’t control what Israel does.
With much of the Gaza strip destroyed, including homes, schools, hospitals, markets, and universities, the fate of the Palestinian people remains unclear.
What happens after?
Both Netanyahu and Biden have strongly rebuked claims that the IDF has committed collective punishment, ethnic cleansing or a genocide in Gaza. Yet statements from Israeli officials offer conflicting accounts.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant demanded a “complete seige” of Gaza.
“We are dealing with human animals,” he said.
Israeli Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi, a member of the far-right Likud party, lost access to X (Twitter) last week after he suggested IDF should do “no less than burn Gaza.“
Perhaps most striking, a week into the conflict, Israeli President Isaac Herzog claimed all Palestinian civilians in Gaza could be targets.
“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said on Oct. 13. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat,” he added.
Genocide: defined
The United Nations defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:”
- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
On Friday, the first day of the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza described the aftermath of seven weeks of bombings as “complete and utter destruction.”
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