Israel has begun to release over 600 hostages. This release happened in exchange for the bodies of four hostages to the Red Cross, which happened as planned.
According to Al Jazeera, “there are 115 Palestinian Palestinians serving life and long sentences who are being released. Only 43 of them will be released to the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. Ninety-seven of them will be exiled out of the occupied Palestinian territory, and 11 are originally from Gaza, so they will be returning to the Gaza Strip.”
Exiled where?
One of the hostages has reportedly been in a coma for months so Palestinian medical teams are awaiting his release.
The World Health Organisation says that over 160 healthcare workers from Gaza are still in Israeli detention centers and they are “deeply concerned about the wellbeing and safety of Palestinian health workers in Israeli detention”, after reports that detainees in Israeli prison facilities were routinely subjected to violence and mistreatment.
These workers could be a part of the next stage of the ceasefire. Hamas says that the remaining Israeli hostages will only be released if Israel commits to the ceasefire deal.
