The Ceasefire Is In Effect And The First Hostages Have Been Released.

Thanks To The Pressure Exerted By President-Elect Trump, A Ceasefire Has Finally Been Reached In Gaza And The First Hostages Have Been Released.

von Anti-Spiegel

US President-elect Trump has repeatedly threatened that all hell will break loose if the Gaza war continues when he takes office on January 20th. Apparently Trump, although he is actually an uncompromising supporter of Israel and a friend of Netanyahu, has primarily put pressure on the Israelis.

And with success, because a ceasefire has now come into force and the first hostages have been released. Here I show how Russian television reported on the release of the first Israeli hostages in its weekly news overview and have translated the corresponding report from the broadcast.

Three hostages were handed over to Israel

Today the long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas comes into force. After 15 months of war, the parties signed a ceasefire agreement. The agreements were reached with the mediation of the USA, Qatar and Egypt. The first phase of the ceasefire will last 42 days.

According to the agreement, as of January 19:

Of course, the end to the bloodshed in Gaza is good news. But no one knows how long this ceasefire will last. Both parties to the conflict have gone far too far, there are too many victims and the contradictions in the region are too strong.

Israel has been waiting for this moment since November 2023, since the first agreement on a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners was broken. And now the time has finally come.

As of 4:00 p.m. Middle East time, most of the Israeli population was probably watching the live broadcasts of the main television and radio stations. They showed how the first three freed women were transported through Gaza in Hamas vehicles and then transferred to Red Cross jeeps and the jeeps drove towards the Egyptian border. There, Egyptian border guards handed over the freed hostages to the Israelis, to the Israeli military. It's about the three young women Romy Gonan, Emily Damari and Daron Steinbrecher.

They were all taken to the Gaza Strip by terrorists from the Nugba Brigade on October 7, 2023 and spent 471 days as hostages in the Palestinian enclave. They were the first three of 33 Israeli hostages to be released under the first part of the ceasefire agreement.

This will last 42 days. At the end of the list, Alexander Trufanov is to be released, an Israeli with Russian citizenship whose release has been so strongly demanded, including by Russian diplomats.

The first hostages are taken to the large Israeli clinic Tel Ashemer on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Everything is ready there to provide patients with the necessary first aid. They meet their relatives there and spend the first four days. They will then be granted disability status under current Israeli law, which will allow them to receive certain fixed cash benefits for the rest of their lives.

This is just the beginning of the agreement. Everything went according to plan and it is quite possible that another group of Israeli prisoners will be released later this week.