agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.<\/a><\/p>\nDespite the deal, which should see all the hostages held by Hamas released, families remain cautious.<\/p>\n
“Controlled optimism” are the words Ms Machikawa used to explain how she was feeling after hearing the news.<\/p>\n
She described the negotiations as a “rollercoaster”.<\/p>\n
“We hardly breathe,” she said, adding she had no idea when her uncle would be released.<\/p>\n
“I believe Gadi will be fine. It will take time but he will be hugged so warmly and slowly. Together we shall overcome.”<\/p>\n
In Tel Aviv, a square that has often been packed with protestors demanding the release of the hostages was empty soon after the ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced.<\/p>\n
The agreement is expected to be approved by the Israeli cabinet, after which the ceasefire is expected to happen in three stages.<\/p>\n
The first phase would last six weeks and see 33 hostages – including women, children and elderly people – exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.<\/p>\n
Negotiations for the second phase – which should see the remaining hostages released, a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza and a return to “sustainable calm” – would start on the 16th day.<\/p>\n
The third and final stage would involve the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of any remaining hostages’ bodies.<\/p>\n
“We actually don’t know anything. It’s scary,” said Yosi Schnaider, cousin of hostage Shiri Bibas, who was abducted with her two children and husband.<\/p>\n
“We don’t know if they’re on the list, if they’re going to come back in the first phase. If they are alive, if not,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\nNimrod Cohen was just 19 years old when he was abducted by Hamas [Getty Images]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Yehuda Cohen, father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier who was abducted by Hamas, said: “I don’t have time for emotion.”<\/p>\n
“I can be the father of Nimrod once Nimrod is back here,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I haven’t talked to him for 15 months, seen him, heard him…I’m fighting to get back to be Nimrod’s father.”<\/p>\n
According to BBC Verify, 94 of the 251 hostages taken on 7 October 2023 are still held in Gaza – 60 are assumed to be living and 34 dead.<\/p>\n
Some 109 hostages have already been released through negotiations, either on humanitarian grounds or during a temporary ceasefire in November 2023.<\/p>\n
Eight hostages have been rescued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).<\/p>\n
The remains of 40 hostages have been recovered from Gaza by the IDF. This includes three hostages accidentally killed by the IDF on 15 December 2023.<\/p>\n
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and others – in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n
More than 46,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n
Most of the 2.3 million population has also been displaced, there is widespread destruction, and there are severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter due to a struggle to get aid to those in need.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by George Wright<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I need to invent a new word to describe it – when joy and worry meet,” says Efrat Machikawa. Her uncle, GadiRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}