After enduring nearly seven weeks of uncertainty about the fate of family members kidnapped by Hamas, relatives of hostages were left with hope and a new set of anxieties after Israel and the militant group reached a breakthrough deal on Tuesday\u00a0that will see a four-day humanitarian pause to allow the release of at least 50 Israeli women and children. <\/p>\n
While the exact names of the hostages to be released\u00a0has yet to be publicized by the government, officials say some have dual nationality. The\u00a0Israeli military says Hamas is holding 239 hostages in Gaza, including foreign nationals from dozens of countries, who were taken during the October 7 attack. <\/p>\n
Hamas militants stormed her kibbutz of Nir Oz on October 7, killing Kalderon\u2019s mother and her niece while kidnapping her two children, Sahar and Erez, and their father Ofer. The 56-year-old says the last message she received from her son, who was staying in his father\u2019s house that day, was: \u201cMum, be quiet, don\u2019t move.\u201d <\/p>\n
After hearing about Tuesday\u2019s deal, Thomas Hand said he wanted \u201cto jump through the roof with hope. But I also have to keep a level head emotionally\u2026 I can\u2019t let myself get too far ahead.\u201d <\/p>\n
It has been a period of anguish and hope for Hand, who was initially told his 8-year-old daughter Emily had died in the October 7 attack. Weeks later, Israeli officials told him that they\u2019re not sure Emily was killed. They haven\u2019t located her body and didn\u2019t find any blood in the home where she was sleeping. <\/p>\n
On October 7, Roman\u2019s cousin, Yarden Roman-Gat,\u00a036,\u00a0<\/strong>handed her 3-year-old daughter to her husband hoping he could run faster as they tried to flee Hamas gunman. Her husband and child were able to escape, but Yarden has been missing ever since. <\/p>\n \u201cAs it seems, we\u2019re going to have to wait and see every day who are going to be released the following day and that\u2019s going to be extremely hard,\u201d Roman continued, adding it\u2019s causing a lot\u00a0of\u00a0tensions among the different\u00a0families. <\/p>\n \u201cFor our\u00a0family\u00a0we have spent the last seven weeks worrying, wondering, praying, hoping,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe one thing that we all hold on to is that hope now that Abigail comes home, she comes home by Friday,\u201d she added. \u201cFriday is her 4th\u00a0birthday. We need to see Abigail come out and then we will be able to believe it.\u201d <\/p>\n Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel during Hamas\u2019 attack.\u00a0Israel\u2019s ensuing war with the group in Gaza has killed more than 12,000 Palestinians, including an estimated 5,000 children, according to the\u00a0Hamas-run government\u2019s press office. <\/p>\n Under the terms of the\u00a0deal, which was approved by Israel\u2019s cabinet overnight, Israel will\u00a0release\u00a0150 Palestinian prisoners, who are all\u00a0women and children, according to Hamas.\u00a0It will also allow\u00a0the entry of hundreds of trucks carrying relief, medical and fuel to the devastated enclave, Gaza. <\/p>\n Up to 83 Palestinian women and 380\u00a0children\u00a0under the age of 18 are being held in Israeli prisons, more than half of whom\u00a0have been\u00a0detained since October, according to the\u00a0Palestinian Prisoner\u2019s Society, a non-governmental organization. <\/p>\n There are some 8,300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, according to\u00a0Qadura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners\u2019 Affairs, 3,000 of whom are held in what is known as administrative detention, meaning they are held without known charges against them or\u00a0an\u00a0ongoing legal process. <\/p>\n There is potential for the truce to extend beyond the four-day period, where an extra day would be added to the truce for each 10 additional hostages available for release. On Wednesday, the Israeli government published a list with\u00a0the names of 300 Palestinian prisoners as it offered the possibility of a second phase of exchanges of prisoners for hostages. <\/p>\n Anat Moshe Shoshany, whose grandmother was kidnapped from Nir Oz on the back of a moped, said hearing that the Israeli cabinet had\u00a0approved a deal for the release of some hostages held by Hamas gave her \u201cso much hope.\u201d <\/p>\n As the war grinds into its 47th day Wednesday, families have learned to be patient, she said. \u201cBecause we can\u2019t stand to fill all our hopes up and to\u00a0(be)\u00a0disappointed\u00a0\u2013 but I really do hope to see someone walking out of there. I think it will fill us with hope for others.\u201d <\/p>\n The deal gives some breathing room for Prime\u00a0Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who many in Israel\u00a0blame for failing to anticipate the October 7 attack, and for the lack of progress in securing\u00a0hostage releases. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is what we wanted for our loved ones, to start coming back, and you see that,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe one thing that\u2019s important to us here is to get the hostages back. Me and my family kept faith all this time that our government really was putting the hostages at the top of the priority list.\u201d <\/p>\n CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify Qadura Fares\u2019 title.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n After enduring nearly seven weeks of uncertainty about the fate of family members kidnapped by Hamas, relatives of hostages were left with hope and a new set of anxieties after Israel and the militant group reached a breakthrough deal on Tuesday\u00a0that will see a four-day humanitarian pause to allow the release of at least 50 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}