Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
3 released hostages are with Israeli forces in Gaza
TEL AVIV: Three Israeli hostages released from Gaza have been handed over to Israeli forces there in the first test of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The three hostages are Romi Gonen, 24, kidnapped from the Nova music festival, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Later on Sunday, Israel is expected to release around 90 Palestinian prisoners.
A gradual release of 33 captives over the next six weeks has been agreed on. In exchange, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and Palestinians from Gaza who have been detained.
Palestinian prisoners set for release include 69 women and youngest is 15
BEIRUT : The 90 Palestinian prisoners set to be released Sunday in exchange for three hostages held by Hamas include 69 women, according to a list provided to The Associated Press.
The youngest is Mahmoud Aliowat, 15.
The prisoners to be released include Khalida Jarrar, 62, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist faction with an armed group that has carried out attacks on Israelis. New York-based Human Rights Watch said her repeated arrests are part of Israel’s wider crackdown on non-violent political opposition.
Dalal Khaseeb, 53, the sister of former Hamas second-in-command Saleh Arouri, is also on the list, which was provided by Hamas. Arouri was killed in an Israeli strike in a southern Beirut suburb in January 2024.
Also listed for release is Abla Abdelrasoul, 68, the wife of detained PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat who killed an Israeli Cabinet minister in 2001 and has been serving a 30-year sentence.
Head of Rafah municipality says the city is a disaster zone
CAIRO: The head of the Rafah municipality in Gaza has told journalists that it has become a “disaster city,” with massive destruction there.
Ahmed al-Sufi said Israel’s military has destroyed a large part of the infrastructure including water, electricity and road networks, in addition to thousands of homes and public facilities.
“Rafah faces a humanitarian tragedy,” he said, as Palestinians across the territory are beginning to discover the scope of the destruction in the first hours of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Macron says France will work on full implementation of the ceasefire
PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron says France intends to work with other nations to ensure “the full implementation” of the Gaza ceasefire.
A statement Sunday from his office said Macron “is delighted that the Israeli Cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement” and that “he warmly thanked the Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators who contributed to it.”
His office said Macron spoke Saturday by phone with the families of two French-Israeli hostages still in captivity, Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi.
The statement said their families “have been living for 15 months in an anguish that the entire French nation shares. … Ohad and Ofer are now both on the first list of hostages to be released.” Macron has said that the two are on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed concerns about the hostages’ health.
“I don’t know in what condition they will return. We don’t know how many are alive or dead and, among the living, in what psychological state we’ll find them in. But the hostages will be progressively released. It’s a good thing,” he told French broadcaster BFMTV.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
