Hamas and Israel have completed a second round of hostage, prisoner exchange involving 13 Israelis and four Thai nationals as well as 39 Palestinian prisoners on late Satruday.
The Israelis and Thai nationals arrived in Israel Sunday while a dispute over aid delivery in the Gaza Strip was brewing.
Although the issue was resolved through mediation by Egypt and Qatar, it delayed the release of captives and underscored the fragility of the four-day truce to swap 50 hostages held by the Palestinian militant group for 150 prisoners in Israeli jails.
A Palestinian official familiar with the truce efforts played down the threat it could collapse.
"There is no major threat to the agreement. Mediators are dealing with things on daily basis and hopefully the deal will be completed," the official told Reuters.
The truce is the first halt in fighting since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion into southern Israel.
In response, Israel has vowed to destroy the Hamas who run Gaza, raining bombs and shells on the enclave and mounting a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 people, roughly 40% of them children, have been killed, Palestinian health authorities said Saturday.
Israeli casualties, in comparison, are at 1,200.
Television images showed freed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza as Hamas handed the captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross late on Saturday.
Six of the 13 Israelis released were women and seven were teenagers or children. The youngest was 3-year-old Yahel Shoham, freed with her mother and brother, although her father remains a hostage.
"The released hostages are on their way to hospitals in Israel, where they will reunite with their families," the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israel released 39 Palestinians – six women and 33 minors – from two prisons, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
Some of the Palestinians arrived at Al-Bireh Municipality Square in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where thousands of citizens awaited them, a Reuters journalist said.
Second release
Saturday's swap follows the previous day's initial release of 13 Israeli hostages, including children and the elderly, by Hamas in return for the release of 39 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli prisons.
Earlier Friday, Hamas also released a Philippine national and 10 Thai farm workers.
The four Thais freed Saturday "want a shower and to contact their relatives," Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on social media platform X.
All were safe and showed few ill-effects, he said.
Eighteen Thais remain captive, Thailand's foreign ministry said Sunday.
"I’m so happy, I’m so glad, I can’t describe my feeling at all," Thongkoon Onkaew told Reuters by telephone after news of the release of her son Natthaporn, 26, the family's sole breadwinner.
Aid dispute
The deal risked being derailed when Hamas' armed wing said Saturday it was delaying releases until Israel met all truce conditions, including committing to let aid trucks into northern Gaza.
Saving the deal took a day of high-stakes diplomacy mediated by Qatar and Egypt, which U.S. President Joe Biden also joined.
Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan said only 65 of 340 aid trucks that had entered Gaza since Friday had reached northern Gaza, or "less than half of what Israel agreed on."
The Hamas-affiliated Al-Qassam Brigades, also said Israel had failed to respect terms for the release of Palestinian prisoners that factored in their time in detention.
The Israeli military said the United Nations and international organizations distribute aid within the Gaza Strip. The U.N. said 61 trucks delivered aid to northern Gaza on Saturday, the most since the war began seven weeks ago. They included food, water and emergency medical supplies.
Israel has said the cease-fire could be extended if Hamas continued to release at least 10 hostages a day. A Palestinian source has said up to 100 hostages could go free.