Israel-Hamas four-day truce starts: How day one unfolded
In the first day, 24 captives held in Gaza were released on Friday, while a total of 39 women and children were released from Israeli jails.
Published On 24 Nov 202324 Nov 2023
After 48 days of war and bombardment that took thousands of lives, a four-day truce in the Israel-Gaza war began on Friday with captives released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Here is what we know about day one:
Captives and prisoners release
- During the four days of truce, at least 50 captives are expected to be freed, leaving an estimated 190 captives in Gaza. In exchange, 150 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released.
- On Friday, 24 captives held in Gaza, including 10 Thai nationals, one Filipino and 13 Israeli women and children were released. In exchange, 24 Palestinian women — including two 18-year-olds — and 15 boys who were held as prisoners in Israel were released.
- The captives were transferred out of Gaza and handed over to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, accompanied by eight staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a four-car convoy, the ICRC said.
- Earlier on Friday, at 7:00am local time (05:00GMT) combat between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters halted for the first time in seven weeks under the truce. No big bombings, or artillery or rocket attacks were reported, although Hamas and Israel both accused each other of sporadic shootings.
- Both said the war would resume at full throttle as soon as the truce was over.
On day one this is how things unfolded:
Thailand:
- Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was the first to announce the release of some captives. He said his government received confirmation that some Thai workers held in Gaza were released by Hamas.
- A total of 10 Thai nationals were released. At least 23 Thai workers are believed to be taken as captives into Gaza during the October 7 attack, in addition to 32 Thai workers who were killed during the assault.
- The release of the Thais, who were all men, is believed to be unrelated to the truce negotiations and followed a separate track of talks with Hamas mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
- The Thai nationals “will be taken to Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh), where they will be met by Embassy officials. They are required to be under medical supervision for a period of 48 hours, without access to outsiders,” Thailand’s foreign ministry said.
