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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday vowed decisive action to ensure that all remaining hostages held in Gaza are brought back to Israel, after Hamas freed six captives earlier in the day.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Netanyahu said “The government of Israel is committed to continue acting decisively in order to bring all of our hostages back home – the living to their families, and the deceased to proper burial in their country,”.
Palestinian families wait into the night for prisoner releases
Palestinians hoping for the release of relatives under the latest exchange of the Gaza ceasefire waited uncertainly into the night on Saturday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a delay.
In the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis as in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, families sought shelter from the bitter cold after waiting in vain for hours for the prisoners to arrive.
Um Diya al-Agha, whose son has spent 33 years in prison, said she had come to each of the six previous prisoner releases in the hope of finding him.
“Yesterday, I received news that he would be released, but I still can’t believe that my son will be free after 33 years”, she told AFP in the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, where freed prisoners had been expected to have a medical checkup.
“If my heart were made of iron, it would have melted and shattered. Every day, I have been waiting for this moment”, the 80-year-old Khan Yunis resident said.
Um Hassan al-Qatta travelled from Gaza City hoping that newly released prisoners might have word on her teenage son, who went missing 314 days ago during the war.
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More Shorts“I don’t know if he is alive or dead,” she said. “I am happy for the hundreds of prisoners who have been freed, and I hope my son Hassan… will be released too.”
Hamas releases all 6 hostages as 1st phase of Gaza ceasefire
The sixth and final hostage has been released by Hamas and is back on Israeli soil, the military said on Saturday.
“A short while ago, the returning hostage Hisham al-Sayed crossed the border into Israeli territory accompanied by IDF (military) and ISA (security agency) forces,” a statement from the military said, adding that he was “on his way to an initial reception point in southern Israel”.
Earlier today, the Palestinian terrorist group “paraded” five hostages in the Gaza Strip before handing them over to the Red Cross. As in previous hostage releases, the freedmen were given certificates in Hebrew to mark the end of their captivity.
With inputs from agencies