PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that French-Israelis citizen Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages to be freed by Hamas following a ceasefire with Israel.
Macron’s announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});“Our fellow citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are on the list of 33 hostages to be freed in the first phase of the Gaza accord,” Macron said in a social media post.
“We remain mobilised without pause to ensure their return to their families,” he wrote.
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Under the deal struck by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, the ensuing weeks should also see the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});The ceasefire would take effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States.
“The security cabinet meeting to discuss and vote on the deal has started,” an Israeli official told AFP. French-Israelis Ofer Kalderon (left) and Ohad Yahalomi.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Should the plan be approved, “the release of the hostages can proceed according to the planned framework, with the hostages expected to be released as early as Sunday”, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Even before the start of the truce, Gazans displaced by the war to other parts of the territory were preparing to return home.
“I am waiting for Sunday morning when they will announce the ceasefire,” said Nasr al-Gharabli, who fled his home in Gaza City for a camp further south in the territory.
“I will go to kiss my land, and I already regret leaving Gaza and my land. If I die on my land, it would be better than being here as a displaced person.”
In Israel, there was joy but also pain over the fate of hostages who have died or been killed since their capture.
In Tel Aviv, pensioner Simon Patya said he felt “great joy” that some hostages would return alive, but also “great sorrow for those who are returning in bags, and that will be a very strong blow, morally”.
Once the security cabinet votes on the agreement, it will go to the government for final approval.
At least two far-right cabinet members had voiced opposition to the deal, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose government is Israel’s close ally, said he believed the ceasefire would go ahead on schedule.
“I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday,” he said.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory after the deal was announced on Wednesday, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds since then.
The war began with the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
During the attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.