UNDEFINED – Hamas militants released a second group of 13 Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, marking the first time they released one of the people kidnapped in their bloody attack on a music festival.

The hostage-for-prisoner exchange was delayed for hours in a heartbreaking development as Hamas accused Israel of violating its part of the agreement, reached under a four-day ceasefire that is already past the halfway point.

But after intervention from Qatari and Egyptian mediators and assurances from Israel, Hamas agreed to go ahead and release 13 Israelis and four Thai hostages in a nighttime operation.

Israel, in turn, released 39 Palestinian prisoners, officials said.

Red Cross minibuses could be seen carrying the hostages late at night through Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt before being transferred to Israel, AFP photo and video images showed.

Among the released Israelis was 21-year-old Maya Regev, who was kidnapped by Hamas in its deadly attack on the Supernova desert rave on October 7, according to a forum of the hostages’ families.

Maya Regev and her 18-year-old brother Itay, who was also kidnapped by Hamas during the festival, were later shown tied up in the back of a pickup truck in a video posted on social media.

“I am so excited and happy that Maya is on her way to us now. “Yet my heart is divided because my son Itay is still in Hamas captivity in Gaza,” her mother Mirit said in a statement released by the Hostage Families Forum.

The family of freed nine-year-old hostage Emily Hand said they were “overjoyed” to hug her again.

“We cannot find words to describe our emotions after 50 challenging and complicated days,” they said in a statement on the forum.

Israeli prison authorities said they released 39 Palestinian prisoners in return, including 38-year-old Israa Jaabis, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2015 for exploding a gas cylinder at a checkpoint.

The handover of the Hamas hostages came hours later than expected after the militant group said Israel was interfering in the selection of prisoners to be released and was not allowing aid to reach civilians in the northern Gaza Strip.

NINE YEAR OLD BOY HUGS FATHER

Hamas later said it had “responded positively” to Egyptian and Qatari mediators after they conveyed a promise from Israel to “comply with all the terms of the agreement.”

Israeli officials denied any violation of the terms of the pause.

Saturday’s exchange followed an initial exchange on Friday when Hamas released 13 Israelis, all women and children.

Ten Thais and one Filipino were also unexpectedly released by Hamas.

Israel, in turn, released 39 Palestinian women and children from its prisons under an agreement requiring three-to-one exchanges.

Israeli hostages released in the first exchange were reunited with their families in touching scenes.

Nine-year-old boy Otah, wearing glasses and carrying a stuffed toy, turned the corner of a hospital near Tel Aviv, started running and threw himself into his father’s arms, video images showed.

The boy, his mother and his grandmother were among those released in the first exchange on Friday.

That same day, fireworks exploded in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and crowds filled the streets to greet the first release of Palestinian prisoners.

“I was just waiting for the day I would be released from prison so I could hug my mother like that,” said Rawan Abu Matar, who served eight years in prison for the attempted knife attack on an Israeli soldier.

Hamas is expected to release a total of 50 hostages during the ceasefire in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners under a deal negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.

Relief trucks enter GAZA

According to Israeli authorities, their fighters captured around 240 people when they breached Gaza’s militarized border with Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.

After the deadliest attack in its history, Israel launched air, artillery and naval bombardments as well as a ground offensive to destroy Hamas. According to the Hamas government in Gaza, nearly 15,000 people were killed, mostly civilians, including thousands of children.

The pause in fighting in Gaza paved the way for more aid to Palestinians struggling to survive with a lack of water and other essentials. Israel had almost completely besieged Gaza.

A total of 61 trucks delivered food, water and humanitarian aid through a “humanitarian passage” to northern Gaza on Saturday, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs said.

Another 187 trucks carrying essential supplies were sent separately to aid organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, it said.

The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said that in “several reported incidents” on Friday, “Israeli forces opened fire and threw tear gas canisters at people heading north; At least one person was reportedly killed and dozens were injured.”

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said seven people were injured in similar incidents on Saturday.

Egypt said it had received positive feedback from both sides on the idea of ​​extending the ceasefire by a day or two and releasing more hostages and prisoners.

“It’s just a start, but so far it’s gone well,” US President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday, adding that “the chances are real” of extending the ceasefire.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for “a permanent ceasefire and a complete end to this aggression.”

But Israel Defense Forces chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi insisted Saturday that the war to destroy Hamas would resume as soon as the lull in fighting ends.

“We will return to attack Gaza immediately after the ceasefire ends,” Halevi said.

“They destroyed our houses”

“We will also do this to crush Hamas, also to create great pressure to return as quickly as possible and to make as many abductees as possible, every single one of them,” he added.

The United Nations estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting.

Since the ceasefire, thousands have returned to what was left of their homes.

“We are civilians,” said Mahmoud Masood, standing in front of flattened buildings in Jabalia, northern Gaza. “Why did they destroy our houses?”

A woman sat crying on a pile of rubble with her head in her hands.

In the south of the Gaza Strip, AFPTV drone images showed people walking or riding on donkey carts along cleared paths through piles of rubble.