French-Israeli Mia Schem among eight hostages freed as Gaza truce ends
French-Israeli hostage Mia Schem was among eight Israeli hostages released by Hamas late on Thursday in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners. Meanwhile fighting resumed in Gaza on Friday immediately after the expiry of a week-long truce.
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French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday welcomed the release by Hamas of French-Israeli hostage Mia Schem, while saying his country was working towards the liberation of all remaining hostages in Gaza.
Schem had been taken by Hamas at a music festival she attended on 7 October, with her friend 27-year-old Elya Toledano, also French-Israeli, who is still captive.
The young woman, who was wounded in the arm, was the first hostage to appear in a video broadcast by Hamas on 16 October.
Eight Israeli hostages, including six women aged between 21 and 41, were released by Hamas on Thursday, according to accounts given by their relatives to French news agency AFP, information from the Israeli press and the Hostage Families Forum.
The truce agreement between Israel and Hamas stipulates that a minimum of 10 Israeli hostages should be released alive each day.
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The release of two Russian-Israeli women in addition to 10 others a day earlier made up for the fact that only eight Israelis were released Thursday, a source close to Hamas said.
Israel released 30 more Palestinian prisoners 23 minors and seven women on Thursday night.
Since the truce began on 24 November, 80 Israeli hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners have been released.
More than 20 foreigners, most of them Thais living in Israel, have been freed outside the scope of the agreement.
Fighting resumes
Meanwhile, fighting resumed in Gaza on Friday immediately after the expiry of a week-long truce with the first fatalities reported minutes later, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.
Israel's military said fighter jets were "currently striking" Hamas targets in Gaza, and AFP journalists reported air strikes in the north and south of the territory.
Marwan al-Hams, the director of Al-Najar hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza, where many Palestinians fled after being told by Israel to leave the north of the territory, said strikes killed at least nine people in the city, including four children.
Elsewhere, two children were killed in air raids on Gaza City, said Fadel Naim, a doctor with Al-Ahli hospital in the city.
Combat resumed shortly after Israel's army said it had intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza, the first from the territory since the start of the truce.
The truce had paused fighting that began on 7 October when Hamas militants broke through Gaza's militarised border into Israel.
The unprecedented attack killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants kidnapped about 240, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel's air and ground military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Hamas.
"Upon the resumption of fighting, we emphasise: The Government of Israel is committed to achieving the goals of the war: Releasing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to the residents of Israel," it said in a statement on Thursday.
Call for international action
During the seven-day truce, aid entered Gaza where about 80 percent of the population is displaced and grappling with shortages of food, water and other essentials.
Qatar – which helped mediate the truce – on Friday urged swift international action.
The Qatari foreign ministry, in a statement, said it stresses that continued bombing at the end of the pause "complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip, and... calls on the international community to move quickly to stop the violence."
On Thursday, US top diplomat Antony Blinken, meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials, called for the pause in hostilities to be extended, and warned any resumption of combat must protect Palestinian civilians.
(with AFP)
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