Good news for the hostages release and a temporary ceasefire in Gaza Strip - sharing so you don’t need to watch the news
I'm watching the news and will share for those who are avoiding it as it is good news today for Gaza Strip. 13 Israeli and dual nationality released are now already in Egypt and on their way to Israel soon. All women and children. Plus 10 young Thai men who are not part of the Israel deal but in a separate negotiation with Thailand and one Phillipino.
39 Palestinian women and children who aren't convicted of anything to do with harming anyone are also released in exchange.
Meanwhile all bombing and artillery is stopped in Gaza Strip and the first aid trucks are in convoys into the Gaza Strip. Assuming the ceasefire continues, the Palestinian civilians in Gaza Strip will have at least 4 days knowing they are not at risk of being killed by a bomb at any moment.
It is a carefully thought through agreement and Hamas have very strong reasons to keep the ceasefire from their side as well as the Israelis from their side. So it is likely to continue
Some of those I help are taking a complete break or watching minimal news because the news from the Gaza Strip was just too much for them emotionally. So this is to help you if you are one of those. It is good news today for both Israel and for Palestinians in Gaza Strip.
Video from Rafah crossing.
First of four Red Cross vans with hostages.
13 Israeli or dual nationality
10 Thai
1 Phillipino
This screenshot is from the BBC coverage so I don’t have a video to share. There were four vans, the first with young kids, then the next one with young men, which would be the Thai and Phillipino hostages. Then two vans with old ladies all with white or grey hair, likely elderly with health conditions.
This is the list of the Israeli citizens published with their statement:
Asher family: Doron Katz Asher (34 years old), Raz Asher (age four) and Aviv Asher (two years old)
Aloni family: Daniele Aloni (45 years old) and Emilia Aloni (age six)
Monder family: Ruth Munder (age 78), Keren Munder (54 years old) and Ohad Munder (age nine).
Adina Moshe (age 72) - Hanna Katzir (age 76) - Margalit Mozes (age 77) - Channah Peri (age 79) - Yafa Adar (85 years old)
. Israel Gaza live news: Freed hostages back in Israel, military confirms - BBC News
LIKELY DIFFICULT ADJUSTMENT FOR THE HOSTAGES
[From what the reporters said on the BBC]
From the previous hostages, they have likely been kept underground in darkness spending the entire last 6 weeks in Hamas underground corridors, and hearing bombing going on and knowing very little. They will most likely not know who was killed in their community in the attack unless it happened before they were captured.
They are likely to have many difficulties adjusting, first to the brightness of day after being in low light donations in darkness for weeks then the trauma and stress of coping with what happened to them. Then also they are all known in Israel, they have been on the news and details of their lives, their interests etc shared widely so that many Israelis will feel they know them and will want to congratulate them etc but that attention, positive though it is, may be too much and difficult for them to handle.
So they will have many issues adjusting. Then they likely have physical issues too. Though the first assessment is that they all seem to be in physically good condition.
But they are now released and their long ordeal is now over.
DETAILS OF THE AGREEMENT - INITIALLY 4 DAYS FOR 50 HOSTAGES BUT COULD EXTEND TO 15 DAYS WITH 10 EXTRA HOSTAGES RELEASED FOR EVERY DAY
In exchange, 39 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons will be released. Many of those have been held without trial under military rather than civilian detention and may have minor offences like waving a Palestinian flag and others are not told what they are held for, and are held without trial and neither they nor their lawyers know what they are held for.
None of them would be convicted of anything like murder or serious assault or anything like that.
The ceasefire is not only in Southern Gaza Strip. It is for the entire strip.
The Israelis have withdrawn some of their tanks to Israel and the others are holding position in Gaza Strip and the artillery and bombing has stopped.
I expect they had to do that because it is the only way Hamas could get hostages out of Gaza City.
The agreement is for 4 days and 50 hostages but can be extended an extra day for every 10 hostages with likely 150 that could be released.
So that could be 15 days if they were all released.
They are releasing the women and children at a 3 to 1 ratio.
I
The Israelis have thousands of Palestinians in detention on minor things like waving a flag or without any information about why they are detained.
That wouldn’t be everyone. It would be women and children.
The ones they would release last would be Israeli soldiers they captured and men of military age.
The highest ratio hostage exchange historically is 1027 for the return of Galid Shalit after five years of negotiation, in that case many of those had been involved in killing Israelis
. Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange - Wikipedia
The Israelis have thousands of Palestinians in detention on minor things like waving a flag or without any information about why they are detained.
So there are thousands they can release that are of no risk to the Israeli people.
Anyway so no need to go check it 🙂
I've shared the main news here.
ISRAEL WANTS TO RESUME THE FIGHTING AFTER THE CEASEFIRE ENDS BUT THIS IS A TIME FOR HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS AND OTHER COUNTRIES TO MAKE THE CASE TO TRANSITION TO A LASTING SOLUTION AND A PERMANENT CEASEFIRE - ALREADY DAVID CAMERON SAYING THE CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN GAZA STRIP ARE TOO HIGH
If the ceasefire continues that long, this is time for humanitarian organizations and the other countries like the UK and USA to make the case to Israel to try to get them to change and on Israel's side time for their understandable initial emotional reaction to transition to a more rational approach.
I plan a new blog post explaining, we don't have agency but we can wish for this 🙂
And we see that wish operating through intervention of others who do have agency.
David Cameron has moved forward there by stressing to Israel that the civilian casualties are too high.
QUOTE He said Israel had a right to self-defence and what happened on 7 October was "completely appalling", but he added: "When I met the Israeli president, prime minister and others, I stressed over and over again that they must abide by international humanitarian law, that the number of casualties are too high and they have to have that at the top of their minds."
And the BBC commentators said that they are likely far more vocal in private.
As for what happens next, I have heard various people on TV speculating as I did that it will be hard for Israel to step up to the level of indiscriminate bombing they did before after this is over.
All we can say for sure is that there will be a lot of pressure from other governments and the humanitarian organizations for it to be permanent. They now have 4 days and possibly 2 weeks to make that case to Israel and put pressure on Israel.
With the idea of replacing the Israeli military with international peacekeepers and an administration .
HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS SITUATION, NO NEED TO ALIGN WITH ANY OF THE POLITICS, JUST TAKE THE SIDE OF HUMANITY, ALIGN WITH THE DOCTORS, RELIEF WORKERS, HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS AND WISH FOR THIS TO BE RESOLVED QUICKLY WITH PEACE FOR BOTH SIDES IN THE CONFLICT - TO ALIGN WITH KINDNESS WHEREVER IT IS
The best thing is to take the side of humanity. There is no need to sort out the in's and outs of the politics. But we can all agree that civilian lives on both sides need protection. The international humanitarian organizations and the international human rights organizations say that Hamas committed war crimes but say that what Israel is doing is illegal too. Israeli lawyers have an eccentric interpretation of international law according to which their blockade of Gaza Strip is legal because they claim that the Palestinians never owned the land and so can't be occupied. Other lawyers say this is false because of a concept in the UN Charter called "sacred trust".
But we don't need to become internet lawyers. We can just say we support the humanitarian organization and the doctors and health workers and that we want the bombing of civilians to be stopped, for humanitarian reasons not bothering about whether it is legal or not. Israel also agree that they didn't manage to minimize civilian casualties in the way they hoped and many Jews globally have joined the protests saying the current far right government has gone too far.
But you don't need to decide about that either. Just to side with the need to protect civilian lives, that they aren't combatants and that harm to them has to be minimized.
And to wish this to be resolved quickly, to be glad they have a temporary ceasefire and to hope that in the future they are able to find a solution that means this won't happen again on either side, neither Hamas attacking Israel nor Israel bombing Gaza strip again and in a way that respects rights for Palestinians so that a kid born in Gaza strip has rights similar to one born in other countries to health, to education, freedom of movement etc and that the same for Palestinians in Israel and also for Jews in Israel to not be at risk for harm from terrorists.
Then as for how that will happen, that is something many are working on in various ways but it's complex and difficult and we don't need to take a position on how to resolve it if we are just siding with humanity.
I do all my Gaza Strip debunks from this perspective of aligning with doctors, nurses, international aid organizations and the power of kindness.
BLOG: On Substack (plays videos better): Power of kindness to deal with the Israeli and Palestinian tragedy - including kindness towards yourself - you need to look after yourself - a post based on the humanitarian positions of UNRWA, UNICEF, MSF, WHO etc