The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have confirmed that the Israeli hostages freed from Gaza are now in Israel and have undergone medical checks.
A statement from the IDF reads:
The released hostages underwent an initial medical assessment inside Israeli territory. They will continue to be accompanied by IDF soldiers as they make their way to Israeli hospitals, where they will be reunited with their families.
Axios’ Barak Ravid has shared the full IDF statement in English:
Israel has received a list of hostages who are expected to be released by Hamas on Saturday, according to Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Netanyahu’s office said it has notified the families whose loved ones are set for release.
Helicopters carrying released hostages have arrived at several different hospitals across Israel where they will be reunited privately with their families.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has described the release of hostages as “welcome news and an enormous relief”.
Posting to social media, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he hoped all remaining hostages will be soon be released and reunited with their loved ones. He added:
While still in captivity, they must have access to any medical care needed.
In the heart of Tel Aviv, several hundred people waited in the plaza now called Hostages Square.
As darkness fell the mood was melancholic but hopeful as people waited for a confirmation that 13 women and children held by Hamas had been freed as planned.
Then came a cheer as news of their release was confirmed.
People sang Shabbat or old folklore songs as they waited outside the Museum of Art, where among the most poignant displays was an empty dinner table, surrounded by 240 empty seats, representing each of the missing hostages, not just the handful in the slow process of coming home.
“I’m just looking at these pictures and seeing that Israeli children and women and whoever are coming back to their families. I mean, it’s amazing for us,” Gil Dickmann told the BBC, even though his cousin Carmel Gat was not going to be one of those released in the first wave.
Celebrations broke out in parts of the West Bank after a truce mediated by Qatar between Israel and Hamas led to the freeing of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Here’s a clip:
The World Health Organization has released the following statement on the joint UN missing transfers of critical patients from al-Shifa hospital earlier this week amid Israeli bombardment:
“On 22 November, in cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, WHO participated in another joint-UN mission to transfer 151 patients, relatives and health workers accompanying them from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza. The mission was undertaken following specific requests from health authorities and hospital officials in Gaza …
During this mission, the team transferred 73 severely ill or injured patients, including 18 dialysis patients; 26 patients with serious spinal injuries; 8 patients with severe chronic conditions; two in need of critical care; and 19 patients in wheelchairs. The patients were transported in 14 ambulances supplied and staffed by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and two buses, with 8 health workers and 70 family members accompanying them …
It took 20 hours for the team to complete the evacuation, including 6 hours at a checkpoint where the team and patients were screened by the Israeli Defense Force. This was despite an initial agreement to only screen participants at the origination point in Al-Shifa Hospital.
The screening process involved checks on the patients, their relatives, and the personnel; these included elderly, children and severely ill patients. Three medical personnel from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and three from the Ministry of Health were detained.
After 6 hours at the security checkpoint, the convoy proceeded as the condition of some of patients was already deteriorating. Patients reached their final destination late at night.
Most of the patients were ultimately transferred to the European Gaza Hospital, with the dialysis patients admitted to Al Najjar Hospital. Both facilities are in the south of Gaza.
WHO is extremely concerned about the safety of the estimated 100 patients and health workers remaining at Al-Shifa. Due to the limited time that the mission members were able to spend in the hospital and the urgency of moving the most critical, it was difficult to determine exactly how many remain.
Two of the six detained health workers have reportedly been released. We do not have information about the well-being of the four remaining health staff, including the director of Al-Shifa hospital. WHO calls for their legal and human rights to be fully observed during their detention.”
French president Emmanuel Macron has welcomed the release of the first group of hostages.
In a post on X, Macron said:
“We remain mobilized alongside the mediators to secure the release of all hostages. Special thoughts go to the French hostages and their families. They can count on our determination.”
In a separate statement, the French foreign ministry said that the French government remains “mobilized for the release of French hostages within the framework of the agreement currently being implemented … and we are working tirelessly to obtain that,” Agence France-Presse reports.
Here is video of what appears to be the moment that Hamas handed over the hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross earlier today:
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has released a statement confirming its successful facilitation of the release of 33 Palestinian detainees from Ofer prison in the West Bank.
Posting on X, the ICRC said:
We have now successfully facilitated the release of 33 Palestinian detainees from Ofer prison to Ramallah. We have managed to do so thanks to our neutral intermediary role.
The Spanish government has hit back at Israeli claims that Pedro Sánchez’s recent remarks on the conflict are “giving support to terrorism”.
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, has called the Israeli government’s comments “totally false and unacceptable”, adding:
The ministry of foreign affairs is analysing the appropriate response that we are going to give – and there will be a response to these false, misplaced and unacceptable accusations.
Looking to the future, Biden urges an end to “this cycle of violence” and renews his resolve to pursue a two-state solution “where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side … with equal measure of freedom and dignity”.
The US president says:
Over the coming days, I’ll remain engaged with leaders throughout the Middle East as we all work together to build a better future for the region.
A future where this kind of violence is unthinkable. A future where all children … Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Israeli, Palestinian Arab, grow up knowing only peace.
Joe Biden says the pause in fighting is a “critical” opportunity to deliver much needed food, medicine, water and fuel to the civilians in Gaza.
“We are not wasting one single minute,” he says, adding that he has been focused on accelerating the delivery of humanitarian systems to Gaza in coordination with the UN and the Red Cross.
More than 200 trucks carrying food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas arrived at the crossing point in Egypt into Gaza today, he says.
The fuel will be used not only to power the trucks delivering this life saving supplies, but for desalinisation for water wells for hospitals and for bakeries. Hundreds more trucks are getting in position as well, ready to enter Gaza over the coming days.
He says mechanisms have been put in place to prevent Hamas from diverting these supplies.
Joe Biden says today’s hostage release is the “start of a process”, adding:
We expect more hostages to be released tomorrow. And more the day after, and more the a day after that. Over the next few days, we expect that dozens of hostages will be returned to their families.
He says that he “will not stop” until all the remaining hostages in Gaza are brought home.
Joe Biden says all of the hostages who have been released today have been through a “terrible” ordeal and that this is the “beginning of a long journey of healing”.
The teddy bears waiting to greet those children at the hospital are a stark reminder of the trauma these children have been through at such a very young age.
Today has been a product of “a lot of hard work and weeks of personal engagement’” he says, adding that he and his teams have been working “around the clock” to secure the release of the hostages since they were first taken captive.
Biden says he has spoken repeatedly with the Emir of Qatar, President Sisi of Egypt, and Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to confirm the elements of the engagement”.
Joe Biden has begun delivering his remarks on the release of hostages from Gaza.
The US president says that beginning this morning under a deal “reached by extensive US diplomacy”, fighting will halt for four days to allow a pause for more than 50 hostages to be released. “That’s our goal,” he says.
He says 13 Israeli hostages were released this morning, including older women and mothers with their young children, some under the age of six.
Separately, several Thai nationals and Filipino nations who were kidnapped by Hamas have also been released, he says, adding:
It’s only a start, but so far it’s gone well.
US president Joe Biden is about to deliver remarks on the release of hostages from Gaza.
We will be following his remarks live on the blog. You can also watch his address at the top of this page.
Celebrations have been taking place in the West Bank following the release of 39 Palestinian women and children detainees from Israeli jails.
A total of 39 Palestinian prisoners – 24 women, including some convicted of attempted murder for attacks on Israeli forces, and 15 teenagers jailed for offences such as throwing stones – were released by Israel on Friday evening. Some had not seen their families for many years.
In at least three cases, before the prisoners were released, Israeli police raided their families’ homes in Jerusalem, Reuters reported, citing witnesses.
Four German-Israeli dual nationals were among the hostages released from Gaza on Friday, German media reported.
The released hostages whose family members said they had dual citizenship were: Aviv Asher, 2; Raz Asher, 4; and Doron Katz-Asher, 34; as well as Margalit Mozes, 77.
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, on the sidelines of a Greens’ party conference, confirmed four dual nationals were among those released, Deutsche Welle reported.
She expressed her thanks to Qatar for its role in negotiating the release as well as Egypt and the International Red Cross. She said:
I am immensely relieved that 24 hostages have just been released from Gaza, including four Germans, that a father, after 49 days of hell, of unbelievable anxiety, can finally hold his two little daughters and his wife safely in his arms again.
She continued:
There are still over 200 women and men, and especially children, in the hands of Hamas. Our thoughts are with them today and also with their families. As much as this day is a day of hope, it is not a day to breathe a sigh of relief.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari has held a news conference where he said the released hostages – 13 Israelis and 11 foreigners – have all undergone medical tests and are in good condition.
The freed hostages are being taken to Hatzerim airbase to complete physical and mental checkups, and to call their families, the Times of Israel reported.
The foreigners, from Thailand and the Philippines, will meet representatives of their nations, he said.
They will all then by taken by helicopters to hospitals, where they will meet their families, he said. He added:
We mustn’t forget this evening that each and every one of those returning home tonight still has a family member who has been murdered or has been held captive in Gaza.
He continued:
The sight of the hostages returning home and crossing into Israel gave us a great sense of relief and yet our heart goes out to all the other hostages still kept in Gaza.
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