An 8-year-old soccer fan who enjoys playing video games. Young siblings dance away at a desert music festival. A 67-year-old agricultural expert and her relatives enjoy a family gathering.
These are a few of the 105 people released by Hamas during the temporary truce with Israel, which began on November 24 and ended early December 1.
Under the terms of the agreement, reached after weeks of tense negotiations, Israel released three Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli hostage allowed to leave Gaza. The framework witnessed the release of 80 Israelis, some of whom hold dual citizenship, from captivity. By the end of the cessation of hostilities, 240 Palestinians had been released from Israeli prisons, most of them women and minors, many of whom had been detained but not charged.
In addition, a number of foreign nationals – 23 Thai nationals, a Filipino national and an Israeli-Russian national – were released as part of separate negotiations outside the truce.
The interim agreement, accompanied by a slight increase in much-needed humanitarian aid entering the besieged enclave, represents the first major diplomatic breakthrough in the conflict.
Click on the image to learn more about each hostage returned from Gaza so far. This page will be updated as more hostages are released.
Editor’s note: several Israeli hostages, who were previously released before the temporary truce, are not included in this story.
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