EXPLAINER

On the first day, 24 prisoners held in Gaza were released on Friday, while a total of 39 women and children were released from Israeli prisons.

After 48 days of war and bombing that claimed thousands of lives, a four-day ceasefire The war between Israel and Gaza began on Friday with the release of prisoners in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Here’s what we know about the first day:

Release of prisoners and prisoners

• At least 50 prisoners are expected to be released during the four-day ceasefire, leaving an estimated 190 prisoners remaining in the Gaza Strip. In return, 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be released.
• On Friday, 24 prisoners held in Gaza, including 10 Thai nationals, a Filipino and 13 Israeli women and children, were released. In return, 24 Palestinian women – including two 18-year-olds – and 15 boys held as prisoners in Israel were released.
• The prisoners were transported from Gaza and handed over to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, accompanied by eight International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff in a four-car convoy, the ICRC said.
• Earlier on Friday, at 7:00 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT) Fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants came to a halt under the ceasefire for the first time in seven weeks. No major bombings or artillery or rocket attacks were reported, although Hamas and Israel accused each other of sporadic shootings.
• Both said the war would resume at full speed once the ceasefire ended.

On the first day it went like this:

Thailand:

• Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was the first to announce the release of some prisoners. He said his government had received confirmation that some Thai workers held in Gaza had been released by Hamas.
• A total of ten Thai nationals were released. At least 23 Thai workers are believed to have been taken to Gaza as prisoners during the October 7 attack, in addition to the 32 Thai workers killed in the attack.
• The release of the Thais, who were all men, is believed to have had nothing to do with the ceasefire negotiations and came as part of talks with Hamas mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
• The Thai nationals “will be taken to Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh) where they will be received by embassy officials. They must be under medical supervision for a period of 48 hours and not have access to outsiders,” the Thai Foreign Ministry said.

Israel:

• About half an hour later (around 2:23 p.m. GMT), the other prisoners were released, Hamas officials told AFP.
• At 6:06 p.m. in Gaza (16:06 GMT) the ICRC confirmed that 24 prisoners had been released.
• At 7:17 p.m. (17:17 GMT) the Israeli military said that his powers were currently with the released prisoners. “You will continue to be accompanied by [Israeli] Soldiers on their way to Israeli hospitals where they will be reunited with their families,” they added.
• A full list of Israeli prisoners released on Friday is available Here.
• Speaking to Al Jazeera, Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy said that most Israelis saw the images of the prisoners’ release on their television screens.
• “There is a mix of emotions: on the one hand, there is the simplest basic happiness for family reunification… but every Israeli knows that this is just the beginning,” Levy said.
• “I think the mood of the nation right now is very clear and very general: the Israelis want all the hostages back at any cost, with the exception of very right-wing groups… and that means an extended ceasefire because everyone understands that you can’t go back to that “We will approach the war with the same intensity and expect more business,” he explained.

The moment 13 of our loved ones entered Israeli territory.

Welcome home 💙

📸@IDF pic.twitter.com/reXgBLLeFx

— Israel Israel 🇮🇱 (@Israel) November 24, 2023

Palestine:

• At 7:34 p.m. (17:34 GMT)Qatar confirmed the release of 39 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons.
• As part of a ceasefire brokered between Hamas and Israel, the group was moved to Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, where families gathered outside are eagerly awaiting their return home.
• Angry baker, who was arrested in 2015 at the age of 16, was released from Ofer Prison. She was among the first Palestinian women and children released under the ceasefire agreement.
• Baker told Al Jazeera that many of the released prisoners require medical attention. “All prisoners suffered high levels of medical neglect [while detained],” she said. Baker was shot in the arm during his arrest.
• A full list of Palestinian prisoners released on Friday is available Here.
• According to Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara, this could be the start of something positive.
• “If the agreement works today, that means it could definitely work in the next few days,” Bishara said.
• “This is the other side of the darkness that has descended on Gaza and somewhat on Israel over the last 50 days… so it is important for us to look at this, no matter how short and complicated it is, and see it as that, “What is possible.” Why it is so important to end this war,” he added.

International aid

What is the situation in Gaza?

• In the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, the streets are packed with people pouring out of their homes and shelters into a landscape of buildings reduced to piles of rubble.
• Displaced families with young children carried their belongings in plastic bags, hoping to return, at least temporarily, to the homes they had left at the start of the war.
• “I’m very happy now, I feel good. I am going back home, our hearts are rested,” Ahmad Wael said with a smile while balancing a mattress on his head. “I am very tired of sitting around without food and water. There [at home] We can live, we drink tea, we bake bread.”
• In the battle zone in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from the other side of the fence in southern Israel, there was no sign of the warplanes that have been thundering through the sky for weeks, of explosions on the ground or of the contrails of Hamas rocket fire. In the early afternoon only a cloud of smoke could be seen.
• Columns of Israeli tanks rolled away from the northern end of the Gaza Strip in the morning, while aid trucks from Egypt rolled in at the southern end.